VOLLEYBALL: Golden Falcons sweep Cougars

By Ben Coley
Published in Sports on August 19, 2016 1:48 PM

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PIKEVILLE -- In its first two games of the season, the Goldsboro volleyball team had not dropped a set, and had not allowed more than 20 points to its opening 1-A opponents.

But on Thursday night, Cougars' head coach TJ Lancaster and his team were pitted against a stronger 3-A animal.

The high-flying Golden Falcons to be more specific.

With an efficient, up-tempo style, Aycock dispatched Goldsboro 25-14, 25-19, 25-19 to notch its third consecutive victory to open the 2016 season.

"I think we played well," said CBA head coach Tangela Faulkner. "We're still trying to work on some kinks in our serve receive, but overall, I think we did a good job gelling. I think we put the ball away on the net, we had a lot of blocks and we had a lot of touches.

"We controlled the game from start to finish."

The Golden Falcons jumped to an early 12-3 lead in the first set. Four of those points were slammed down by junior Arlanda Faulkner, the daughter of the first-year CBA coach. Faulkner finished with a game-high 14 kills in the match.

The Cougars eventually narrowed the lead to 13-8, but the margin would get no closer for the rest of the set. Goldsboro senior Becka Pittard tallied two kills and a block in the set.

Keeping a tight grip on the momentum, CBA began the second set with six consecutive points. The Golden Falcons pushed their lead to 22-12, but that's when the Cougars made their move.

Goldsboro responded with five straight points to cut it to 22-17, but a host of errors and miscues ended the comeback, ensuring a 2-0 edge for CBA.

"If we can take those moments in which we start playing and have the high energy, the high mentality, we can play with a lot of people," Lancaster said. "Those moments back in that second set, there at the end, we made that run. I told the girls, 'This is us. This is who you are when you play with energy.'"

In the middle set, sophomore middle hitter Makayla Roberts led the Cougars with three kills and three blocks. CBA senior Tanika Powell registered four kills in the set.

The third and final set proved to be the most contentious. The set witnessed 12 ties and five lead changes. Goldsboro -- which had a lead as large as four points -- found itself tied 17-17.

However, CBA soon restored order in the form of six straight points, essentially sealing the sweep.

In the locker room, Faulkner made sure to congratulate her team on the victory, but made it clear that she is not yet satisfied. Moving forward, she plans on emphasizing communication on the court and being ready at the defensive end.

It's all in an effort to prepare her team for the grind of conference play later this fall.

"We talked about a lot of the challenges we still need to fix," Faulkner said. "My big push is to keep them focused on playing our level of play, fast-tempo and getting the kinks worked out before we get started in conference."