Midway’s Gracyn Hall swipes the ball back over the net.
                                 Daron Barefoot|Sampson Independent

Midway’s Gracyn Hall swipes the ball back over the net.

Daron Barefoot|Sampson Independent

<p>Peyton Herring leaps for the attack.</p>
                                 <p>Daron Barefoot|Sampson Independent</p>

Peyton Herring leaps for the attack.

Daron Barefoot|Sampson Independent

<p>Ella Clark sets the ball for a Raider teammate to attack.</p>
                                 <p>Daron Barefoot|Sampson Independent</p>

Ella Clark sets the ball for a Raider teammate to attack.

Daron Barefoot|Sampson Independent

Round three of the NCHSAA 2A Volleyball playoffs unfolded in Spivey’s Corner Saturday afternoon when the Lady Raiders hosted a familiar foe in Princeton. The Lady Raiders swept the Lady Bulldogs in the regular season, but were a little nervous about having to face them a third time. Midway, though, made the matchup a quick one as they staked a 3-0 victory to advance to Tuesday night’s fourth round.

After falling behind 2-0 in the first set, Midway recovered and captured a 3-2 lead. The score was tied again at 3-3 and the battle was on. Neither team was playing especially great and instead was helping each other out with balls out of bounds or in the net. Through 9-9, the score was still all-tied, but the Lady Raiders snatched a 13-11 lead. Princeton ran them back in, though, but Midway again extended the lead to 17-13, producing the games first timeout from the Lady Bulldogs. The break proved effective as Princeton began to come back, prompting the Lady Raiders to spend a timeout, still leading 18-17. This timeout was also effective as Midway pulled back ahead at 21-17, yielding yet another stoppage in play there when the Lady Bulldogs used their last one. From there, the Lady Raiders reached 25 first, winning 25-20 to go up 1-0.

Midway got a great start in the second set, opening a lead of 6-1. Princeton settled down, though, and got a couple points back and the early lead was 7-3. They continued to lead at 11-6, but got a little careless and allowed the Lady Bulldogs to get back to within 11-10. After the Lady Raiders pushed their lead back to 14-11, Princeton made another run and tied it up at 14-14. Midway again extended their lead but the Lady Bulldogs wouldn’t go away, getting back to within 20-19 to yield a timeout from the Lady Raiders. After that it was a near clean sweep for Midway as they went on to win 25-20 to go up 2-0.

Then in the third set, it was another lightning-fast start for Midway as they opened a 10-3 lead. At 11-4, Princeton was forced to ask for another timeout. Even after the break, the Lady Bulldogs just couldn’t get anything going as they fell behind at 17-7 and had to spend their final timeout. Still, absolutely everything was going the way of the Lady Raiders. They slipped up a bit after getting up 20-7, though, and slowly allowed Princeton to accumulate points. At 22-14, Susan Clark called for timeout to regroup her team and finish the job. They tallied two quick points to make it 24-14 and went on to close things out 25-15 for the 3-0 win.

Kaedyn Moran had 13 kills for the Raiders, while Cailyn Hewlett had nine and Gracyn Hall had eight. Ella Clark had 21 sets, and Peyton Herring had five blocks.

Next up for Midway is a fourth-round duel with Manteo, the team that the Lady Raiders had been flip-flopping with in the two- and three-spots all season long. Clark acknowledged that the Lady Redskins will bring in some height and hard hitting.

Manteo enters at 21-4 overall and second place finishers of their conference. Along their journey, the Lady Redskins knocked out the champions of their conference, Holmes, in five sets. Game time at Midway on tonight is 5 p.m.