By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

MOUNT ULLA — West Rowan volleyball coach Jan Dowling may have mellowed a bit over the years, but there’s still some dragon-fire left.

Dowling smashed her clipboard on Tuesday after a string of calls she didn’t agree with.

“Trying to get a yellow card to fire us up,” Dowling said with a sigh. “The Old Dowling was back today, I guess.”

Even the Old Dowling wasn’t enough. South Rowan won 25-21, 25-14, 19-25 and 25-23 in the West gym.

Click here to see more photos from the match.

South did what a lot of good South Rowan, Carson and East Rowan teams haven’t been able to do for a long time. West had won 25 straight matches against Rowan opponents. It was an impressive streak that lasted nearly five years.

“I talked to my daughter (KK Dowling) last night and she said, ‘Mom, you know that streak had to end some time,'” Dowling said. “She’s right about that, but I still hate it happened.”

Besides the county winning streak, West ran the table in the South Piedmont Conference the last two seasons. This time, West starts 0-1 in the league, so maybe it’s wide open.

South (4-0, 1-0) could be in the race all season. At least, that’s the plan.

South has a much more experienced team than West this year, with a number of standouts returning from a 15-8 squad.

“We’re hoping for big things and we’ve set high goals, including a conference championship,” South coach Jenna Horne said. “We played with energy and with heart tonight and we played well together. The defense was solid. Our big hitters had good nights. Those things always help.”

Meredith Faw had 12 kills. Avery Welch had 11.

South got a combined 11 kills, 30 assists and 26 digs from setters Leah Rymer and Laney Beaver.

Faw had 18 digs. Campbell Withers had 12 digs, while Kynlee Dextraze had eight digs.

Dextraze, a junior, has been very good at softball and basketball for the Raiders, and is making a volleyball comeback after taking two years off from that sport.

For West, it’s mostly a new crew, although the Falcons still have Emma Clarke, so they’re going to be a factor in the SPC.

Clarke is a Tennessee softball commit and one of the most highly regarded recruits in the country in the Class of 2024, but she also likes volleyball and basketball and devotes herself to those sports during their seasons.

“The Tennessee coaches have told Emma to play every sport she wants to play,” Dowling said.

Dowling said there was a ‘Stick with softball’ chant from South’s student section after a hitting error by Clarke. She said that provided motivation for one of the county’s special athletes. Clarke is 6 feet tall and she can jump.

“Emma was getting up so high and was driving balls right into the floor,” Dowling said. “I was afraid someone might get hurt. You don’t want to make her mad.”

Clarke had 19 kills and six blocks to lead the Falcons (1-2, 0-1). Clarke and Ava Gusler paced the Falcons in digs.

West played without middle hitter Skyy Ruben and with Sophia Blackledge at about 50 percent due to a sprained ankle.

“I’d say we were down one and a half players, but I was super-proud of how we fought,” Dowling said. “I would look out there and Emma was the only one on the floor with experience. We’ve got a lot of new kids, but girls like Lydia Wilson, Kate Gregory, Lainey Sweet and Neely Hiatt did good things tonight and grew up a lot. We played really awful in the second set and we could have folded, but we didn’t. The new girls may not understand that West Rowan tradition yet, but they fought and won that third set. If they’ll continue to fight like that, we’re going to be OK.”

West also had the lead in the fourth set, but the Raiders weren’t going to let this one get away. South pulled it out.

“We fixed the things that were going wrong,” Horne said. “We’ve got seniors, and we’ve got good leadership. They held things together until we got the momentum back. It’s a good win for us, but we’ve got to keep working to improve every day in practice.”

An exciting SPC volleyball week included Carson winning a five-set match with East Rowan on Monday.

South faced another big matchup with Lake Norman Charter on Wednesday, while West looked to bounce back against SPC newcomer Robinson.