PREP VOLLEYBALL: Wayne Country Day rolls over Friendship Christian

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on August 31, 2018 5:51 AM

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By RUDY COGGINS

rcoggins@newsargus.com

Haleigh Wilhide put away her statsheet, dropped a pencil into her bookbag and took a seat.

The Wayne Country Day volleyball coach gathered her thoughts.

She didn't have much to say.

Who could blame her?

The Chargers opened their Coastal Plains Independent 1-A/2-A Conference slate with a 25-8, 25-2, 25-10 romp over newcomer Friendship Christian Academy on Thursday afternoon.

"We had no idea going into this who they were, what they had," Wilhide said. "Anticipation was up there and they were excited and ready [to play]."

WCDS overpowered Friendship.

The Chargers cranked out 29 kills, served 23 aces as a team and committed just 14 unforced errors in a three-set affair that lasted less than an hour. Grayson Jeffreys provided a season- and career-high 13 aces.

Jeffreys, Cate Eagles and Shae Odom combined to hand out 25 assists.

Middle hitter Lexi Jeffreys and outside hitter Mia Bolechowski put down eight kills apiece.

"We got to work on some more plays, got to see some runs on the front row, so that was exciting," Wilhide said.

After the second set ended on an unforced error, WCDS assistant coach Mike Bolechowski suggested a change in the starting rotation. Odom stepped into the setter's spot and received additional touches on the ball.

"When games are like that, she doesn't get as many touches as Cate, so we wanted to even it out," Wilhide said. "We did a couple of other tweaks ... different plays as far movement with our sets."

The teams played 54 points before the Falcons converted their first successful attack -- a pass kill by Jessica Peterson after she dug up a slide kill attempt by Jeffreys. The ball barely cleared the net and just touched the line on the WCDS side.

The sideout ended a 14-0, second-set run by the Chargers.

Friendship finished with five kills, but owned a 23-10 advantage in team digs.

One month into the season, WCDS is 11-1 and has claimed 10 straight-set sweeps over the opposition. The Chargers have dropped just four sets -- one to Oakwood and three to Parrott, which has provided the lone blemish on another otherwise spotless record.

"They're a great group of girls," Wilhide said. "They're eager and they're hungry. They come to practice excited. They come to games excited. They want to play. They want to win."

WCDS returns to action Tuesday at Harrells Christian Academy.