By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

MOUNT ULLA — West Rowan ended another volleyball season against Fred T. Foard on Thursday.

That’s two in a row.

It was a tough third-round 3A match for the second-seeded Falcons. Everyone knew it would be.

West was able to rebound from an awful start and took a 2-1 lead, but couldn’t finish off the 10th-seeded Tigers.

The scores were 25-13, 20-25, 20-25, 25-22 and 15-10.

“The big disappointment that I’ve got is that we came out so flat,” West coach Jan Dowling said. “Not sure how you can come out flat. This was a chance to do it over, a chance to make up for Foard coming here and beating us last year. We talked and talked about the opportunity we had. But then we started very slow.”

The Foard Tigers are one of the elite programs in the state. They play their best in the big matches. This is their 36th appearance in the state playoffs and they’re 81-30 all-time in the playoffs. They’ve won eight state championships.

West, even with its rise to being a regional contender in the last five seasons, was in the playoffs for only the 13th time and owns 15 all-time playoff wins.

“Foard played super well tonight, maybe the best they played all year from what I was told, and we didn’t have our best night,” Dowling said. “It was still a very good match, some very long rallies. But we needed a big night from a lot of people to beat Foard and we didn’t get that.”

The Falcon who had the strongest night was Anna Grace Blackledge. She had 18 kills, five blocks and 15 digs.

Ashlee Ennis had 4 kills, 23 digs and 35 assists.

Emma Clarke had 11 kills, 25 digs and two aces. Madelyn VonCanon had eight kills and 22 digs. Brooke Kennerly had 26 digs.

DeDe Cuthbertson had four kills and two blocks. Ava Gusler had eight digs. Sophia Blackledge contributed four blocks.

“We did some good things,” Dowling said. “Both of the Blackledges were amazing. Ashlee was solid. Where we struggled most was in serve-receive. We didn’t pass it well. Everyone always wants to talk about offense, always looks at how many kills we had, but that first pass is the key to everything. When you don’t have a good passing night, you’re going to struggle.”

It’s a huge momentum sport. West had all the momentum in the world after winning two straight sets. The fourth set was a scrap, but Foard took the momentum back.

Then Foard grabbed the lead in that fifth set to 15, and it was over.

“They really got after in that fifth set, and you have to give them credit,” Dowling said. “There were times tonight when we played a little intimidated.”

Foard (21-7) moves on to play at third-seeded Kings Mountain. Kings Mountain knocked out West Henderson on Thursday.

The other teams still alive in the 3A West bracket are top-seeded North Iredell and No. 4 seed North Henderson.

West puts a 23-4 season in the books. West’s seniors never lost a county match and ran the table in the South Piedmont Conference the last two seasons.

See photo gallery from match here: https://www.salisburypost.com/2022/10/27/photo-gallery-falcons-ousted-from-volleyball-playoffs-after-tough-five-set-match/