Princeton completes regular-sweep of Rosewood

By Allen Etzler
Published in Sports on September 24, 2014 1:48 PM

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aetzler@newsargus.com

PRINCETON -- When Princeton lost two crucial net players Kortney Edwards and Peyton Whitley, the Bulldogs were forced to pull up a junior varsity player -- freshman Emily Ricks.

The Bulldogs had had just one practice together with their new outside hitter coming into a big match against archrival Rosewood. But led by junior Taylor Carroll, Princeton made a seamless transition with Ricks in the lineup and played its best match of the season during a 25-10, 25-11, 25-15 win over Rosewood.

"We felt fairly confident with this," Carroll said. "We knew it was going to be a little iffy, but as the game went on we got better and more confident and started playing like we should and like we know how."

Carroll led the Princeton with four aces and two digs, while Hailey Wood had two kills, three blocks and three aces. Ricks had four kills in her varsity debut. Charley Cox had 12 assists.

The Bulldogs dominated from the opening serve and immediately built a five-point lead and never looked back. They trailed just once in the entire match -- the Eagles led 4-3 in the third game -- and forced Rosewood into 47 total errors.

Princeton's ability to keep the ball in play led to the Eagles' demise.

"We weren't making many errors," Princeton coach Paige Renfrow said. "We were able to keep it in play long enough for them to make errors."

While the Bulldogs dealt with injuries, the Eagles continued to deal with one of their own. Ada Rivera has missed two weeks with a concussion, and in this particular game, her absence showed.

The Eagles struggled to set up teammates around the net for kills and made life difficult for their hitters. Meanwhile, their communication also struggled as five balls dropped to the ground in between players who failed to talk to each other.

"They didn't communicate today at all," Rosewood coach Jennifer Cochran said of her team. "We just weren't in the game. There's no real excuse."

Since having their 47-match Carolina 1-A Conference win streak snapped against Lakewood last week, the rejuvenated Bulldogs are ready to build another one. A dose of motivation came against the Eagles.

Princeton always has its hands full with Rosewood. Even without Rivera, the Eagles' Lexi Mercer has the ability to take command of the game.

The Bulldogs held Mercer to seven kills and three blocks, and never let her start a Rosewood rally. The Eagles rattled off strings of three-or-more points just twice.

"We know we had to get a blocker on her," Carroll said. "She can hit hard and it makes it hard for us to pass. But we also had to worry about everybody else, so we couldn't let them beat us, but we definitely always had to have a blocker on her."

Meanwhile, Princeton had spans of three-or-more points 13 times.

The Bulldogs are happy to get a win over their rival, but now they're focused on a new opponent -- Lakewood. They'll face the Leopards on their senior night hoping to get revenge and play for at least a share of the conference title.

"Oh, it's going down," Carroll said.