Carson volleyball. Brian Wilhite photo.

By Mike London

mike.london@salisburypost.com

DENVER — West Rowan sophomore Lydia Wilson leads the volleyball team in kills and digs.

West won in Tuesday’s first round of the 3A state playoffs at Rockingham County without Wilson, but she was able to return for Thursday’s second-round excitement at East Lincoln. The Falcons prevailed an epic match in five sets. Officially it was 26-24, 15-25, 23-25, 25-21 and 15-12.

Wilson is big in FFA and was showing a prize sheep in Raleigh on Tuesday. That explains her absence.

“It was Lydia’s birthday, and she was the grand champion,” West volleyball coach Tiffany Brooks said.

While no one expects West to emerge as the grand champion in the volleyball playoffs, the Falcons have won two road games, which is not easy to do. West, now 11-10, was 9-10 during the regular season and finished fifth in the South Piedmont Conference. The Falcons weren’t expected to stick around past Tuesday, but they’re still alive in the bracket.

“We’ve played the best that we have all season,” Brooks said. “I’ve kind of been in awe at how well we’ve played. I don’t think anyone expected us to make the second round, much less the third round, but the girls have come together at the right time.”

It’s not often a team will win a playoff match after dropping back-to-back sets, but the Falcons accomplished that feat on Thursday. After letting the third set slip out of their grasp at the end, they regained momentum with a strong start in the fourth set.

Skyy Ruben had more big kills on Thursday, including an emphatic match point. When she’s on, she’s hard to stop, but Brooks said the Falcons haven’t worried much about kills. The kills will come if  they do their jobs.

“What we’ve emphasized is serve and serve-receive,” Brooks said. “That’s all we focus on. Those are the keys to playing good volleyball. We’ve gotten back to basics. The girls aren’t afraid of making a mistake and they are going out there and having fun.”

West Rowan faces a challenging matchup in Saturday’s third round, as the 25th-seeded Falcons will head to the mountains to take on West Henderson (22-2), the No. 1 seed in the bracket.

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CHINA GROVE — Carson was fortunate to squeeze past Crest in a five-set match in Tuesday’s first round, but the Cougars got back on track on Thursday with a fine performance against a strong Hickory team.

“We didn’t play well at all against Crest, made a lot of errors, and maybe we were still fighting that mental battle of not believing we were good enough to win playoff games,” Carson coach Kelan Rogers said. “But the Hickory match was a different story. This was the best we’ve played and we did it against a team that was one of the best we’ve seen.”

Carson won the critical points at the end of the first set to take that one, 25-23. The Cougars rolled from there, finishing a sweep with 25-19 and 25-18 victories over the 12th-seeded Red Tornadoes.

“Everything clicked for us,” Rogers said. “It started with Katy Falkowski just abusing them in the middle. They had to try to make adjustments to Katy, and then our outside hitters took over. Reese Joyner and Tasean Perkins were putting them down. All our hitters had good games. Piper Thonen was good. Riley Wilhite (the other Carson middle blocker) was good.”

Rylee Hedrick’s steady setting earned praise from Rogers, as did the inspired play of back row defenders Alana Herring. Maggie Cross, Chloe Webster and libero Kaylee Thonen.

“They all played really well,” Rogers said. “Every one of them.”

Hickory (21-4) hadn’t lost to anyone other than conference rival North Iredell all season.

“Hickory plays in a strong league, but I think our league is pretty good, better than people give it credit for,” Rogers said. “Lake Norman Charter won on the road at Enka. West Rowan won. And we beat a really good team to get to the third round. It’s tough to make the third round.”

Carson (26-5) had a supportive home crowd on Thursday, including a loud  section of about 30 fans. Now the fifth-seeded Cougars will have to hit the road to play against fourth-seeded Ashe County, which survived a wild five-setter against North Lincoln,  including a 29-27 fourth set when the Huskies (19-2) were on the ropes.

“Honestly, I think we’re a good enough team that we could have gotten three or four home games,” Rogers said. “We’re on the road now, but riding that bus is still a whole lot better than not playing.”

•••

OLIN — Second-seeded North Iredell has been a buzz saw.

The Raiders pounded East Rowan 25-12 and 25-9 in the first two sets in Thursday’s second-round matchup. The Mustangs had a legitimate chance to win the third set and held some leads, but North Iredell came back to win 25-20 for the sweep.

Alli Corl had nine of East’s 25 kills, while Cameron Ostle had eight.

Ostle was the RSSS Female Athlete of the Month for September.

Brooklyn Buck had two aces.

Jacee Eudy had 19 assists. Jordan Dry had 25 digs, with Ostle getting 19, Corl 12 and Eudy 10.

Dry, Ostle and Corl also handled almost all of the serve-receive duties.

East finished 21-10. North Iredell is 26-2 and has won 23 in a row.

North Iredell will host 10th-seeded Lake Norman Charter on Saturday.