D.H. Conley sweeps CBA in volleyball

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on September 11, 2013 1:48 PM

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PIKEVILLE -- Charles B. Aycock head coach Emily Burke has said that when her team doesn't execute the fundamentals it has nothing else to fall back on.

Tuesday evening was a perfect example.

The Golden Falcons failed to do much right in a 25-12, 25-17, 25-10 loss to Eastern Carolina 3-A/4-A Conference opponent D.H. Conley.

The Vikings executed their service game and their passing to near perfection throughout set one. Aycock struggled to break Conley's momentum.

"It was one of those nights," Burke said. "The girls just couldn't get it strung together. We had up-and-down moments and we didn't capitalize on our up moments. We waited for them to make a mistake before we retaliated."

The Golden Falcons (4-3 overall, 1-3 ECC) had difficulty passing with accuracy in set two. Serves sailed either wide or long and kill attempts were off the mark. Burke strategically used her timeouts at critical moments, but the tactic produced few results.

Conley jumped out to a 13-8 lead and Jennifer Shirley added a pair of kills down the stretch to help close out the set.

"When our fundamentals go away from us, the girls can tell," Burke said. "That's when they lose their focus and their momentum and their confidence. Instead of being mentally tough and doing something about it, we wait until someone else does something.

"Instead of making them make an error, we wait for them to make an error."

Kills from Kalee Vanderhorst, Chelsea Bailey and Shirley helped the Vikings build a 12-2 lead in the final set. Aycock was haunted by unforced errors as the team -- full of veteran players -- had trouble getting out of its own way.

"I think it is a little bit of an intimidation thing because they know the conference that we're in," Burke said. "These girls shouldn't be intimidated. They've just got to get their heads around that we're going to have to push through it. I definitely think it is something we can turn around."

The Golden Falcons visit South Central on Thursday.