Triton sweeps Aycock

By Ryan Hanchett
Published in Sports on August 31, 2011 1:47 PM

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PIKEVILLE -- Charles B. Aycock head coach Davis Harris pointed out mistakes, he diagrammed offenses and he made use of his timeouts.

None of it mattered Tuesday night.

Perennial Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference powerhouse Triton dished out a 25-11, 25-11, 25-14 beating that went beyond any strategy moves.

"Triton clearly hasn't missed a beat," Harris said. "They have a good team every season and tonight they played really well."

The 10-time defending conference champions showed no reason to think that there will not be an 11th consecutive league title in their future as they played stellar defense and rode middle hitter Lashonda Davis to a comfortable victory.

The Hawks jumped out to a 12-10 lead in the opening set before Allison Core sent the team on an 8-0 scoring run from the service line. Core powered down three aces during that stretch, and Davis added two kills and a block to put the set away.

"Lashonda is a deceiving hitter," Hawks head coach Wendy Gaines said. "She isn't the tallest girl on the team but she is an excellent leaper ... a very good athlete all the way around."

Five consecutive service errors cost the Golden Falcons in the second set as four balls flew over the back line and one hit the net. The mistakes allowed the visitors to control play and set up their offense.

"We can not make those mistakes against a good team," Harris said. "I think adrenaline got ahold of us a little bit and we started to press, which led to more bad serves."

The teams battled back and forth in the third set until a six-point run gave the Hawks a 12-7 advantage. Fittingly, the game ended on back-to-back kills by Davis. The senior standout finished with 10 kills and five blocks.

Meredith Burroughs led the Golden Falcons with five kills and a block. Madison Mercer added four kills and one block.

C.B. Aycock (4-1 overall, 0-1 ECC) is scheduled to play North Lenoir on Thursday at 6 p.m. There is a chance that game may have to be moved due to Lenoir County schools still trying to fix damage from Hurricane Irene.

"That is another big game," Harris said. "Our goal coming into the season was to move past North Lenoir and South Johnston, and compete with Triton for first place in the conference. Despite tonight's match we can still do that."