Princeton claims first meeting against Rosewood on volleyball court

By News-Argus Staff
Published in Sports on August 29, 2014 1:48 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

PRINCETON -- Just eight points into the opening set, Paige Renfrow stepped toward the official and asked for a timeout.

The players gathered around the fourth-year Princeton head coach as Rosewood boisterously cheered the early stoppage in play.

"I told them they had to pull it together, this loafing, not getting our feet under the ball, not covering like we're supposed to, that's going to lose the game for you," said Renfrow, whose team had won a grueling five-set match against South Johnston just 24 hours earlier.

The Bulldogs picked up the pace, but battled all afternoon against their intense archrivals in a match not indicative of the final outcome. Kortney Edwards delivered 11 kills and Charley Cox handed out 24 assists in a 25-18, 25-16, 25-16 triumph on the Carolina 1-A Conference volleyball scene.

Princeton remained unbeaten in five outings this season and extended its win streak to 43 against conference opposition -- in regular-season and tournament play -- during Renfrow's tenure on the bench.

Rosewood endured its first league defeat of 2014.

"They've got more weapons than we do, obviously," said RHS head coach Jennifer Cochran, who lost eight seniors to graduation.

"The score doesn't dictate how aggressive the game was, I don't think, by any means. I felt like we were in every point, but we haven't played enough to make the right decision on what to do with the ball at that particular point."

The Bulldogs owned advantages in team kills (32-19), blocks (6-3) and service aces (4-2). Taylor Carroll and Kasey Edwards recorded nine and seven kills, respectively, for Princeton.

Junior Lexi Mercer led Rosewood with 10 kills. Hannah Daniels provided four kills and two solo blocks. Ada Rivera passed out 13 assists.

"Hannah grew up a lot tonight," Cochran said. "I think Ada did a good job in the 5-1, which is a new offense for us. She might have gotten a little tired in the third set."

The teams battled through 10 ties and five lead changes in the opening set. Mercer's kill off of Ada Rivera's assist forged a 15-15 deadlock before the Bulldogs took the lead for good when Kortney Edwards tooled a kill against an outside block.

Princeton closed out the set with a 9-3 run.

The Eagles (3-3 overall) experienced second- and third-set scoring droughts. Cochran attributed that to younger players in attack position with Mercer on the back row.

The Bulldogs' court coverage proved beneficial, as usual. Renfrow's team let just two balls drop during the final 72 points -- an ace by Daniels and a miscommunication on a back-row pass.

"I focus hard on defense because defense wins games," Renfrow said. "You can have power hitters, but if you don't have anybody to back them up, they're no good. I tell everybody that I coach that a pass is the start of the game.

"So we really work hard on that. The teams that we get want to perfect it, so they extra hard to get it perfected."

Princeton is perfect, so far.