Skyy Ruben battles Carson.

Brian Wilhite photo.

 

By Mike London

mike.london@salisburypost.com

Fourth in a series of Rowan County volleyball reports …

MOUNT ULLA — Seven days into this volleyball season, West Rowan was staring at 0-5 in the standings, and that’s normally a whole season’s worth of losses for the Falcons.

None of the losses was a fluke. West got swept five straight times.

The schedule was part of the problem — West opened the season with last season’s South Piedmont Conference co-champions South Rowan and Lake Norman Charter — and then took on perennially strong North Iredell and Watauga and a solid Carson team.

“It definitely was a rough start, not the start we wanted, not the start we expected,” said new West head coach Tiffany Brooks. “But we had a meeting of the minds after that first week. I’m starting to see progress every day in practice. We’ve got talented, experienced girls who can play. The second time through the league, we should do a lot better.”

West was consistently strong under previous head coach Jan Dowling, piling up eight straight winning seasons with a 143-33 record during the last seven. West had a 28-1 team and a 27-3 team in that span, squads that were among the best in county history. West produced a train of gifted hitters — Tori Hester, then KK Dowling, then Kelcie Love, then Emma Clarke — player of the year types who could take over and pound the Falcons to victory whenever the going got tough.

Brooks isn’t blessed with that automatic hitter this season, so it’s been a growing process for her and the team.

Brooks, who played for Dowling at South Rowan before competing at Catawba Valley Community College and Lenoir-Rhyne, has playing experience at every position except setter. She knows her stuff. She was West’s jayvee coach before replacing Dowling, who retired following last season.

“One of the big things was we had to find out who the go-to girl was going to be for this team,” Brooks said. “We’ve got some talented girls who have played four years of varsity volleyball, girls who have played a lot of club ball, but we  had to figure out what the roles were going to be.”

While West has seven seniors, sophomore outside hitter Lydia Wilson, who is about 6 feet tall, has emerged as the standout hitter. Wilson usually leads the Falcons in kills and sometimes leads in digs as well.

“She wants to play in college and she should have a chance to do that,” Brooks said.

Senior middle blocker/right side hitter Skyy Ruben also has college aspirations and has an offer from Emory & Henry. A standout thrower during track and field season, Ruben can explode off the floor and hits with authority. She usually leads the Falcons in blocks and contributes in kills.

Seniors Sophia Blackledge and Lainey Sweet contribute statistically across the board. Both are efficient servers. Blackledge usually leads the Falcons in aces and digs.

West also gets some kills from outside hitter Maddie Sides.

The starting setter is sophomore Brinley Hiatt. It’s a family of setters. Senior Neely Hiatt is also in the setting mix.

The libero is Lucy McLean Shelton. She earned that job after a four-way competition between all of the smaller back-row girls.

Ella Doby, Calle Edwards and Clary Graham, who switched from cheerleading to volleyball, are defensive specialists.

Kate Gregory helps in the middle. The tallest Falcon, Trinity Mckie, is injured right now, but will get  blocks when she returns.

Sophomore Raney Phelps is a name to know. A transfer from Davie, she’s going to impact West Rowan softball in the spring. Brooks believes she has untapped volleyball potential, even though she didn’t play that sport at Davie.

“She’s a natural athlete,” Brooks said. “She’s not as tall as Emma Clarke, but she reminds me of Emma in some of the things she can do. We kept her on the varsity, and I think she’ll be a factor this season.”

West started righting the ship, as the scheduled lightened up. The Falcons won three straight SPC games against Cabarrus squads to set the stage for the next big test — against East Rowan on Wednesday.

The contenders in the SPC should be Lake Norman Charter and the four Rowan schools.Brooks is confident the Falcons can climb back into the race.

“We’ve started to win matches, but we’ve also been preparing for the county matches that are ahead of us,” Brooks said.