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By Brian Pitts

Enterprise Record

The Davie JV volleyball team’s 2-1 home win over East Forsyth on Sept. 24 wasn’t all brilliant. The War Eagles were sloppy in the first set, but in the second set, they decided they were tired of playing with their food.

“We probably had 20 errors in the first set,” varsity coach Amber Brandon said. “When they are playing well, they are probably one of the more talented JV teams I have seen. They have all the pieces to be really good. I think it’s been a struggle for them with how up and down the level of other JV teams are. And they’re getting really bad at falling into the habit of playing at the level of who’s across the net.”

Sophomores Britt Carrier and Hayden Gavura have been huge all season. Davie was wobbly out of the gate in August, but it received a massive boost when Carrier made her belated season debut.

“Britt and Hayden have been the leaders the whole JV season,” Brandon said. “Britt missed the first week and we lost the first two games of the season. When Britt got back, that’s when that six-match winning streak happened. It was night-and-day (difference) with her and without her. To me, those first two matches of the season have an asterisk on them in my book because Britt wasn’t there.”

Davie doesn’t win 10 of 12 matches – from Aug. 22 through Sept. 24 – without Gavura.

“Hayden is a good steadying voice on the court,” Brandon said. “She has a high volleyball IQ. She understands the game. She’s played a lot of high-level, competitive volleyball, so she helps calm the storm because we’ve got some freshmen in big roles.”

Brandon gave credit to Riley Freeman.

“We have a freshman outside who typically plays six rotations,” she said. “(Freeman) grew up around the game; her dad has coached volleyball at the high school level. She is starting to get more comfortable with the pace of the high school game.”

Two days after rallying past East, though, Davie fell in three sets at Reagan. It was a payback win for the Raiders, who lost in two sets at Davie in early September. Davie entered the week 10-6 overall and 8-2 in the conference.