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By Brian Pitts

Enterprise Record

The Davie varsity volleyball team opened the season with 3-0 wins over North Surry and Crest. (Good.) Then it lost by 3-0 margins to South Iredell and Hough. (Not so good.)

First, the good part.

Coach Amber Brandon wasn’t content when it was over, but the War Eagles did just enough to take all three sets at North Surry on Aug. 16. The scores were 25-20, 27-25, 25-22.

“It was a rollercoaster ride for both teams,” Brandon said. “There were a lot of runs from the service line. There were a lot of errors and it was a messy game.

“They are one of the most aggressive serving teams we’ll play all year. I like to play them early because it gives us an indication of where we are in serve-receive. We struggled in serve-receive pretty much across the board.”

Kiah Mathis and Gracie Wilson got their senior seasons off to a fast start.

“Kiah had a really good night,” Brandon said. “She’s been a solid presence in the middle on varsity since she was a sophomore. But she played outside for the majority of the match, and she had some really good swings out there.

“Gracie is a textbook middle hitter and somebody that worked really hard in the offseason and got a lot better.”

Senior Emily Garner and sophomore Emma Willard deserve credit for their work as servers.

“We had a couple of big serving runs,” she said. “Even when the scores were tight, we weren’t scared to put a pretty aggressive serve in play.”

Brandon added that senior Camden Hurst “had a couple of really good swings.” Carly Crouch, a freshman, saw time as a middle in her high school debut.

Davie 3, Crest 0

Crest has been a formidable program since 2017, but the Chargers were subdued at Davie on Aug. 18. The scores were 25-19, 25-20, 25-15.

It was the opener for the Chargers, who went 20-4 and reached the third round of the 3-A playoffs last year. They went 90-21 from 2017-21.

“One thing that’s been fun with this group is we have a lot of kids who can do a lot of different things, and I don’t know if we’ve looked at the same lineup two days in a row in practice,” Brandon said. “We showed a couple different looks (at N. Surry) and they just rolled with it. They just like to play.”

SI 3, Davie 0

The War Eagles’ momentum stalled in a tri-meet Saturday at Davie. In their first match of the day, they lost 25-19, 25-21, 25-11 to South Iredell.

After losing 3-2 to West Rowan and 3-0 to North Iredell earlier in the week, the Vikings broke into the win column.

Hough 3, Davie 0

Later in the day, Davie lost to the vaunted Huskies, who are 3-0 with three shutouts after going 22-4 in 2021. The scores were 25-20, 25-15, 25-13. Hough also beat South Iredell in three sets.