Lady Raiders win playoff opener

Peyton Herring swings the ball back over the net. Daron Barefoot|Sampson Independent

It’s volleyball playoff time across the state — a time that’s always particularly exciting for the Midway Lady Raiders. As has happened quite a few times, they were the undisputed and undefeated champions of the Southeastern Athletic Conference this season and again claimed for themselves the No. 2 seed in the NCHSAA 2A East Region playoffs. With the playoffs getting underway on Tuesday evening, Midway welcomed in the No. 31 seed West Craven, who entered the contest at 9-13 overall and fourth place finishers in the Eastern Plains 2A Conference at 6-6 overall. When all was said and done, Midway defended home court and advanced to Thursday’s second round with a 3-0 victory.

The Lady Raiders got a nice start to the game by building a quick advantage of 9-2. Midway was getting solid attacks for big kills but the Lady Eagles were also self-inflicting wounds. All of this culminated in a timeout as the set was slowly getting away from the visitors. When the action resumed, a couple points landed West Craven’s way but the Lady Raiders continued to be dominant. The big swingers of Midway were proving problematic for the Lady Eagles and the Lady Raiders’ lead reached 15-5. At 21-7, West Craven spent their final timeout of the set. From there, Midway went on to win 25-8 and took a 1-0 victory in the match.

Story continues

TRENDING NOW

LATEST LOCAL NEWS