Leopards upend Bulldogs in 5, claim Carolina 1A tourney title

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on October 16, 2014 1:49 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

WARSAW -- This was an old-fashioned, bare-knuckled fist fight between two of eastern North Carolina's top prep volleyball heavyweights.

And it was a darn good one, too.

Princeton and Lakewood threw a few soft jabs, some right hooks and several knee-buckling haymakers at each other inside Harmon Gym on Wednesday evening.

The Leopards eventually delivered the decisive blow that ended an emotional and exhausting two-hour bout which determined the 2014 Carolina 1-A Conference tournament champion. UNC Pembroke recruit Lauren Tew connected on a right-side kill on match point and lifted Lakewood to a 23-25, 25-19, 25-17, 19-25, 15-13 triumph over the Bulldogs.

"I'm really shaking right now, this is emotional, whew," Tew said.

A senior outside hitter, Tew cranked out 29 kills as the Leopards remained unbeaten in 21 outings this season. Fellow senior Rashyda Parker, who is also getting attention from UNCP and Methodist University, just missed a double-double with 15 kills and eight blocks.

Senior setter Emily Lewis distributed 48 assists among seven different hitters. Lakewood finished with 56 team kills and 14 total blocks.

Junior Hailey Wood and senior Kasey Edwards cranked out 16 kills apiece in Princeton's 59-kill performance. Senior Charley Cox handed out 50 assists and directed an offense that clicked on all cylinders for the first time this season.

"Our girls had a great effort, proud of them," PHS head coach Paige Renfrow said. "I feel like we were on top. I know that the result doesn't show it, but I felt like we were the winners tonight. We played the best our team has we played all season."

Lakewood snapped Princeton's string of three consecutive league tournament titles. Since 2006, the Leopards have won regular-season championships in Super Six, Tri-County and Carolina Conference play.

"Their philosophy was to hustle, hustle, hustle ... dig with their quickness and when we pass-set, we'd hit it in the net or out of bounds. I tell you we were rattled," LHS head coach Sheila Davidson said. "Their gameplan was to serve tough and to certain spots. In the past games we've played them, they've been off, but tonight they were clicking on everything.

"We scored nothing easy on them."

The teams battled through five lead changes before Lakewood got the breathing room it needed in the fifth set. Officials called Princeton (17-4 overall) for back-to-back illegal sets, which put the Leopards in front 8-6.

Tew's kill off of a block gave Lakewood its biggest advantage, 10-7.

"I just had to breathe, listen to what coach told me to do," said Tew, who transferred from Wilmington Ashley during the summer. "We just tried to keep it safe, score all of the points we could and have fun with it. They're athletic and aggressive, an awesome team.

"It was tough."

Princeton knotted the set at 12-all on Edwards' kill and an illegal attack by Lakewood. The Leopards regained the lead on Aleah Parker's kill that and Kiara Rich's carry on an off-speed hit.

Wood's solo block closed the gap to 14-13 and Tew sealed the outcome with a kill off a block.

"We kept our heads up from point one in set one to point 15 in set five," Renfrow said. "We didn't get down, we didn't pass blame on somebody else. We fixed what our mistakes were individually and played as a team."