Wayne Country Day sweeps Goldsboro in volleyball

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on August 22, 2007 1:47 PM

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With one club fresh off a strong showing at a preseason tournament and the other still searching for an identity, the effects were obvious in Wayne Country Day's 25-3, 25-11, 25-6 victory over Goldsboro on Tuesday afternoon.

The Chargers' Stephanie Sykes set the tone in game one with seven service aces during a 10-point run. The Cougars (0-1 overall) settled down in the second game and showed little spurts of offense.

"We adapted," Goldsboro coach Rhet Potter said. "We just have to start adapting at the beginning of matches."

Wayne Country Day (1-0) opened game three with another run. Sykes notched five aces during the 13-1 surge and finished the match with 14 of the Chargers' 38 aces overall.

Serving, as WCDS head coach Juliet Jones suspected, will be a team strength this season. Seven players return, including four seniors, off last year's team which lost just one player to graduation.

"We don't miss a lot of serves,'" Jones said. "That's a great thing. You can't start a game without a serve. We have some great servers this year. I have Erin Taylor, our best server, back this year so we're really excited."

"We have a strong team. They have really stepped up their level of play, and they have really matured a lot as volleyball players."

Sarah Sullivan, another player Jones said she is counting on heavily this season, added 12 aces and eight assists. Kim Martel finished with eight aces and seven kills.

Goldsboro on the other hand, entered Tuesday's match with just three practices on a middle school-sized court under its belt and just three returning players.

"We've been practicing on a middle school court which is 10 feet shorter," Potter said. "Our gym just got resurfaced last week. We haven't even practiced in our gym yet. I think it was a big factor (Tuesday). Once we get on a normal-sized court and start practicing we'll be OK."

With new players adapting to varsity competition, Potter is simply hoping his club will use the strengths it possess in order to improve.

"We are a very young team," Potter said. "I am looking for a fast team. We are not a big team. Hopefully, they'll get it because of quickness. That is all we can work on right now. I lost four players from last season and three starters."