Aycock takes ECC battle

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on September 23, 2009 1:48 PM

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PIKEVILLE -- Poise and confidence.

Charles B. Aycock found those key ingredients it had been missing this season against county rival Eastern Wayne on Tuesday evening.

The Golden Falcons claimed critical points late in the first two sets and turned back the Warriors 25-21, 27-25, 25-8 in Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference volleyball action.

Clinging to a 15-14 lead in the first set, Aycock used a pair of kills from Conner Davis, a kill from Tia Jackson and two Warriors errors to claim a 20-14 advantage.

After Eastern Wayne closed the gap to 20-16, the Golden Falcons nearly gave away the lead on three consecutive errors as the deficit dwindled to 20-19.

Brittany Jackson delivered two emphatic kills down the stretch and Beth Carter's kill finished off the first set.

"We won some critical points and every time we would get a lead they would come storming back," said Aycock head coach Davis Harris. "We had some poise and some confidence. If Eastern Wayne had won game two, we would have played five I think."

The second set was a back-and-forth struggle that saw the Warriors rally to a 22-22 tie thanks to Lani Fricks' kill and multiple Golden Falcons (1-8, 1-2 ECC) errors. Eastern Wayne fought off a set point at 25-24 but could never regain the lead as costly errors stood in the way of winning the set.

"When we dig ourselves a hole it's like we're fighting the whole time," said Warriors head coach Tony Parrish. "We've got to go ahead and get over the hump, and take control of the game instead of getting so far behind. I thought we had a play in the second set and we just didn't make it."

Eastern Wayne (3-11 overall, 0-3) appeared to never recover from dropping the first two sets as Aycock raced out to an 11-1 lead in the final set. Rachel Jordan contributed two aces during the third set and Jackson hammered out a pair of kills.

"I was really pleased with the way we finished off tonight," said Harris. "We haven't been in that position in a while and I think we finally just loosened up and started playing. We're going to have to build on this but we can't sit on it long because we have Triton coming in on Thursday."

The Warriors play host to Southern Wayne on Thursday.