Aycock grinds out 4-set victory

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on August 24, 2012 1:48 PM

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PIKEVILLE -- What Davis Harris said to his team is not important.

What is important is that Harris got his point across.

Charles B. Aycock overcame a shaky start and pulled out a 25-19, 21-25, 25-11, 27-25 win over Wilson Beddingfield on the volleyball court Thursday evening. It was the Golden Falcons' first victory of the season.

The Bruins jumped out to an early 7-2 lead in the first set and Davis quickly called a timeout. Davis was animated in the huddle and his team responded later in the set with 10 unanswered points to take a 13-10 lead.

"You don't want to know what I said," Harris said. "I basically told them to get their heads in the game."

Madison Mercer, Meredith Burroughs and Emily Martin provided kills down the stretch to help Aycock close out set one.

The Golden Falcons struggled to capitalize on kill opportunities and were shaky at times with their serve receive. Beddingfield took advantage and four consecutive aces from Hannah Whitley put the Bruins in front 5-0.

The Golden Falcons closed to within 14-10 on Courtney Warner's kill but Aycock committed errors in critical moments as Beddingfield claimed set two.

"When we attack the ball and play aggressively we can be pretty good," Harris said. "But, when we don't communicate and play as a team we struggle and bad things happen. That is what happened in the second set."

Aycock reeled off 11 straight points to open set three and dominated throughout the set. Aycock regained its hitting touch and Taylor Bradshaw began to assert herself offensively. Bradshaw pounded out five kills in the fourth set and Martin and Katie Gay each contributed a pair of aces.

Bradshaw finished with 10 kills.

"Taylor had her best match ever," Harris said. "The funny thing is she came off the floor and said, "I'm just hitting it. I don't really know where it is going."

The Golden Falcons demonstrated poise in a tight fourth set and Mercer's kill helped fight off a set point. Beddingfield was plagued by two costly unforced errors before Martin's off-speed hit finished the match.

Mercer supplied eight kills and Warner had seven. Martin supplied five kills.

"We really had to fight in that fourth set," Harris said. "I thought we showed some poise and Madison's kill on that set point was huge. It was good for us to have to grind out a set like that."

Aycock (1-3) begins Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference play Tuesday at three-time defending league champion Triton.