North Lenoir knocks off Eastern Wayne, builds momentum for ECC tournament
By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on October 14, 2011 1:49 PM
North Lenoir built some important momentum heading into the Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference volleyball tournament.
Eastern Wayne didn't get the senior night result it wanted.
The Hawks' fed off Warriors' miscues in a 25-10, 25-19, 25-16 victory on Thursday evening in New Hope.
North Lenoir built a 17-7 lead in the opening set behind three consecutive aces from Hannah Gerding. Eastern Wayne committed 17 errors in the first set and Liz Deal's ace finished the set.
"I don't know if we weren't focused," said Warriors' head coach Tony Parrish. "We're in a tough conference and there's no easy ones. We're going to keep working hard and we're going to compete. I was hoping we would have some momentum going into the conference tournament."
Kills from Deal and Cheyenne Sualevai, and a pair of aces from Gerding put the Hawks in front 16-9 in the second set. The Warriors pulled to within 22-17 on Brooke Doherty's off-speed hit. Doherty's ace cut the margin to 23-19. Gerding's off-speed hit and an Eastern Wayne error closed out the set.
Heidi Milliken's kill and her ace helped North Lenoir take a 9-7 lead in the third set. Kills from Milliken, Sualevai and Dani Moulton along with Deal's ace extended the advantage to 18-11.
Lindsay Whaley's ace and Milliken's kill helped the Hawks complete the sweep. Milliken finished with six kills and Sualevai added five kills.
Gerding had five aces.
"I thought we passed very well," said North Lenoir head coach Heather Carson. "We've been working on having good passes, especially off service receive so we can attack the ball. I think building some momentum before the conference tournament is very important.
"We kind of got into a slump and now we're out of it and this win should help us out a lot."
The ECC tournament begins Monday.