The Lady Dark Horses kicked off their playoffs run on Saturday in the NCHSAA 2A Volleyball playoffs and was paired with the Nash Central Lady Bulldogs in this first round matchup. In straight sets, the Lady Dark Horses beat back Nash Central and moved on to second round action set for Tuesday.

On the east side of the bracket, Clinton clocked in at a No. 14 seed following a 16-5 effort during the regular season. This gave the Lady Horses one final home game before hitting the road the rest of the way.

After back and forth play to begin the first set, the Lady Dark Horses built what, at first glance, looked to be a durable 16-9 lead. With everything going right, a Nash Central timeout seemed to arrest the positive momentum for Clinton. What was an eight point advantage over the Lady Bulldogs slowly whittled down to just a 22-21 advantage for the home team. Despite the Lady Bulldogs rally, Clinton got things back together just in time to claim a 25-22 first set win.

Down big in the second, Nash Central could not replicate their first-set rally in quite the same way. The Lady Bulldogs fell in even more decisive fashion, 25-17 to face elimination.Holding a two set lead put the Lady Horses just one more set win away from a 17th win on the year.

Trailing 19-10 in the third set, Nash Central was unable to mount a comeback in the third, falling by an identical 25-17 score as Clinton celebrated their 3-0 victory.

The straight sets sweep for the Lady Dark Horses advances them to the second round of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association 2A state playoffs.

After blanking East Bladen, South Lenoir, a three seed, will host Clinton on Tuesday. Game time is set for 7 p.m.

Reach Sports Editor Daron Barefoot at [email protected].