Staff report

TYRO —  Salisbury’s volleyball team won the critical points at the end of the second set and turned around a Central Carolina Conference Tournament semifinal match on Tuesday.

Third-seeded East Davidson surprised the Hornets in the first set 25-22 and was in position to take the second set with a 24-22 lead, but couldn’t secure match point. Dayami Acevedo came through with some big serves, and the second-seeded Hornets charged back to win the second set 26-24.

Volleyball is a momentum game, and the Hornets carried that fire over to the third set, a dominant 25-9 win that was never in doubt. Ava Morris had a flurry of kills early as the Hornets jumped from a 3-3 tie to a 9-3 lead on Kyliah Pearson-Hasty’s serve. Kendall Henderson took over the net in the middle and piled up blocks and kills to finish off the set. Then the Hornets (13-7) cruised 25-14 in the fourth set and beat East Davidson (8-14) for the third time this season.

Morris had 20 kills and 18 digs. Henderson had 10 kills and five blocks.

Ashley Yang had 39 assists and five kills. She had 24 digs to boost her total to 994 for her career.

Acevedo had six aces, nine kills and 27 digs. Carmen McQueen had six kills and three blocks.

Addie Myers had 21 digs, while Pearson-Hasty had 18.

East Davidson ended its season, as the Golden Eagles are only 44th in the 2A West RPI rankings. Salisbury is 25th and will be in the 2A playoffs, although the Hornets will be on the road in the first round.

CCC regular season champ West Davidson is 17th in the 2A West RPI rankings, although the Green Dragons will be seeded much higher than that for the state playoffs as the 1A/2A CCC’s top 2A team.

Salisbury advances to play West Davidson on Crim Court in Tyro in Wednesday’s tourney championship game.