Princeton eliminates Granville Central in straight sets

By Brandon Davis
Published in Sports on October 28, 2015 1:48 PM

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bdavis@newsargus.com

PRINCETON -- Princeton senior Taylor Carroll dug the ball in the third set of Tuesday evening's match against Granville Central. The ball headed toward the floor, but seniors Hailey Wood and Kelsey Peedin fell near the net to recover it.

The ball popped up and landed on Granville's side as Princeton won 25-19, 25-20, 25-15 in second-round play of the N.C. High School Athletic Association Class 1-A volleyball playoffs Tuesday evening.

The third-seeded Bulldogs (24-1 overall) play host to Wallace-Rose Hill on Saturday. Game time is 6 p.m.

"It just soared over there," Bulldogs head coach Paige Renfrow said, who couldn't believe what she saw. "I don't know how Taylor even got it to that close to the net because that was a hard shot, straight down, and she got just enough hands under it to pull it up."

Princeton kept a close lead over the Panthers in the first set as junior Daisey Eklund had four kills and three consecutive service aces. Wood had three kills and one block, while Carroll had two digs to help her team move on to the second set.

Eklund continued the trend in the next set with five kills, one block and one dig. Senior Kortney Edwards provided one kill. Wood had three kills and one block.

However, the third set proved to be a test for the Bulldogs.

Granville led 5-1 in the third set before Eklund did what she does best. She had four kills, three blocks and one service ace, and appropriately ended the third set with a kill.

Edwards and Peedin both had two kills. Edwards, Wood and Carroll had three digs apiece.

"Granville Central came out serving strong," Renfrow said. "It was like we were trading points back and forth. We had a lot of errors on our side. We stepped it up and we kicked it up and got it together. (We) played together as a team (and) capitalized when they (Panthers) were making mistakes."