Hamilton takes charge, Warriors top Golden Falcons in 4 sets
By Allen Etzler
Published in Sports on October 10, 2014 1:48 PM
aetzler@newsargus.com
During a timeout in the second set, Eastern Wayne head coach Jackie Lewis told her setters Jenna Rouse and Casey Young to focus on getting the ball to their 6-foot-3 hitter Naheria Hamilton more.
The Warriors listened and reaped the rewards.
Hamilton finished with 13 kills and six blocks to help Eastern Wayne avenge an earlier loss with a 27-29, 25-21, 25-20, 25-14 victory over Charles B. Aycock during their "Pink Out" game Thursday evening.
Eastern Wayne wore pink jerseys in recognition of breast cancer awareness.
"(Naheria) is an intimidation factor for us," Lewis said. "Getting her involved helped us tremendously."
Eastern Wayne recovered from a back-and-forth first set that saw nine lead changes. Aycock eventually scored three straight points after trailing 27-26 to get a first-set win that could have demoralized the Warriors who had only one Eastern Carolina 3-A/4-A Conference win coming into the game.
But Lewis' team fought back and won the next two sets in close fashion, and then finished off Aycock with a decisive fourth-set win.
"I thought they responded really well from the first set," Lewis set. "They came out with blood in their eyes and they were ready and they didn't get up. It was much better than the last time we played (Aycock)."
Aycock beat Eastern Wayne 3-1 in the first meeting.
This time, though, the Warriors played as a cohesive unit.
"We're really feeling it as a team right now," Hamilton said. "We've just started to come out here and play. We just give it our all."
Eastern Wayne's height proved to cause problems for Aycock, so much so that the Golden Falcons started anticipating kills and blocks, and failed to take care of details like court positioning and even making solid contact with the ball.
Rouse was able to collect six kills with pushes over the net to spots where defenders weren't because they were often anticipating spikes from Hamilton and company on the front line.
"Jenna is really smart," Hamilton said. "She does that a lot. She sees the court really well and knows when she can set it to us or push it over."
Courtney Warner led Aycock with seven kills and Abbie Walton had 14 assists in the loss.
"It's always good to beat Aycock," Lewis said. "These girls really wanted this one and they got it."