DANBURY — North Stokes welcomed county-rival West Stokes to Danbury on Tuesday, Aug. 20, in a non-conference volleyball game.
The Wildcats overcame a rocky second set and won the match 3-1, which extended their winning streak to nine games over the Vikings and 14 out of the last 15 meetings dating back to September 2016.
The Wildcats took set one 25-18, but not without a fight from the Vikings. The visitors held a 4-2 advantage before North Stokes scored the games next five points and took a 7-4 lead behind kills from Emma Lawson and freshman Milly Craig.
North Stokes fought and continue to hold a small lead over West at 15-11 before the Cats went on a 5-1 run behind Maddie Childress and Scarlett Smith’s kills, knotting the game at 16-16.
West Stokes finished the game on a 9-2 run with Smith contributing three attacks and senior Emmerson Adams registering two aces from the serve line.
West Stokes took control of set two early and coasted to a 20-13 lead before North came roaring back. An attack by Greer and a hitting error and serving error by West drew the score to 21-20. After a kill by Kaitlyn Willard, Rachel Bingman had back-to-back spikes along with another Wildcat hitting error, and the score was tied at 23-23. With the score at 25-25, North Stokes scored on a kill by Riley Joyce and then a hit out of bounds gave the Vikings a 27-25 victory.
West Stokes’ coach Jordan Stevens made a rotation change in the last two matches, and it seemed to work for the Wildcats. The purple and gold sprinted out to a 7-0 advantage with senior Presley Barker at the serving line.
North Stokes shrank the Wildcat advantage to 9-4 before another run by the visitors. West Stokes scored eight straight points and finished the set on a 16-3 run winning 25-7.
The Lady Cats started set four with five straight points behind Barker’s serving before winning the final game 25-13.
Childress led the Wildcats with 17 kills with Smith and Addie Willard finishing with 10 each. Adams finished the game with 25 digs, Smith 18, and Childress nine. Barker had 43 assists and four aces.
Leading the Vikings was Bingman with 10 kills and three blocks, Joyce with 15 assists and two aces, and Caroline Mabe with 17 digs.
West Stokes improves to 3-1 overall and will travel to rival South Stokes (1-2) on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. The Sauras lost a tough 3-2 match to start the season against the Wildcats and lost to Bishop McGuinness 3-2 on Monday.
The Vikings fall to 1-3 on the season and will host Bethany on Aug. 26 then travel to Elkin the next night, with both teams opening up Northwest 1A Conference play.
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