Summer Watson digs the ball out on a return.
Daron Barefoot|Sampson Independent
Kaedyn Moran stares down the ball as she prepares for an attack.
Daron Barefoot|Sampson Independent
Cailyn Hewlett swipes the ball back over the net in a battle at the net.
Daron Barefoot|Sampson Independent
Volleyball playoff action continued on Thursday night at Midway High School when the Lady Raiders hosted Bunn in the second round of the NCHSAA 2A Volleyball playoffs.
The Lady Wildcats, sporting a 13-6 overall record, entered the contest as the No. 15 seed. Two-seed Midway, though, was expecting quite the challenge from the visitors and their expectations were met. After coasting in the first two sets, the Lady Raiders had a fight on their hands before eventually securing the 3-1 victory.
After sound issues prompted the teams and the fans in the stands to sing out the national anthem, the two teams hit the court to do work. It was intense from the outset as both teams were neck-and-neck.
Midway started out with the lead, but Bunn caught back up and went ahead at 5-4. The Lady Raiders, though, hit a little streak to go back ahead and create some distance at 9-5. Midway’s blocking at the net was effective and aided the Lady Raiders to maintain a 5-6 point edge throughout the set. Then, a couple consecutive points propelled the lead to 17-11, yielding a Lady Wildcats timeout. They weren’t able to recover much from there, though, and Midway claimed the first set, 25-15.
The Lady Raiders had a nice start in the second set, getting a 5-0 lead. After Bunn tallied a couple points, Midway continued to fire away, getting a 12-4 lead. The Lady Wildcats simply couldn’t get untangled as they gradually fell further behind. With the lead surging to 19-10, Bunn signaled for timeout. It was for naught, though, as Midway ran off with a 25-11 victory to go up 2-0.
The third set started off much like the first, a back-and-forth boxing match that yielded a 5-5 tie. The Lady Wildcats found a little something to work with, though, and got a lead of their own at 8-5. They maintained a 2-3 point lead as it was now Midway fighting to find some momentum. On several occasions, they got back to within one point but couldn’t quite draw even. Trailing 13-11, head coach Susan Clark signaled for timeout. Midway continued to struggle to get out of the mud as they trailed at 20-16, and signaled for their final timeout. This time it was Bunn’s moment in the spotlight as the Lady Wildcats took the win, 25-19, to make it 2-1.
Bunn continued to roll in the fourth set, constantly hitting the Lady Raiders with their best shot to open a 4-1 lead. This time, though, Midway reeled them back in and went ahead at 8-7. The score was tied up again at 9-9 and the race to 25 was on. Momentum, though, had finally shifted back over to the Lady Raiders as they opened a 17-11 lead, prompting a timeout from the Lady Wildcats. The teams traded scores after that, which meant Bunn wasn’t able to cut into the deficit. The lead reached 23-17 which yielded Bunn’s final timeout. In the end, it was Midway who ran off the court with the 25-18 win for the 3-1 victory.
Kaedyn Moran had a big game for the Lady Raiders, getting 26 kills. Cailyn Hewlett had 11 kills, Gracyn Hall had eight and Sam Carter had seven. Ella Clark had 33 assists. Moran had 10 digs while Hewlett, Clark, Summer Watson, and Abbie Beasley each had eight. Peyton Herring had 10 blocks and Carter had four.
Midway was seemingly rolling in the first and second sets, getting big blocks and timely kills to look like a far superior team. All that changed in the third, though, as suddenly it was now Bunn who looked like they wanted it more. When asked what she thought happened, Clark didn’t discredit the Lady Wildcats in the least.
“Bunn is a really good team,” she said. “We were making mistakes and didn’t recover quick enough and they took advantage of that.”
They also did a much better job of digging, or blocking, strong hits from Midway’s big swingers while also figuring out a way to disrupt the Raiders’ blockers.
“I think our timing was off and we didn’t move fast enough to block a few times. Those things add up and give the other team confidence,” Clark added.
Midway did enough in the fourth set to grind out the win, though, earning them a spot in the third round on Saturday. That’s where the Lady Raiders will face off against Princeton for the third time this season. Despite having swept them in the regular season, Midway knows a big challenge is coming from the Lady Bulldogs.
Now at 20-3 overall, the Lady Raiders will host Princeton at 1 p.m. on Saturday in the third round.