NORFOLK, Va. — It was a clean sweep for the Catawba Valley Community College volleyball team in its two-day appearance in the Bryant & Stratton College tournament on Friday and Saturday at the Tidewater Volleyball Center.
The Red Hawks defeated Bryant & Stratton College, Richard Bland College and Macomb Community College (Mich.) — all by 3-0 scores.
"We knew coming into this tournament that we should do well if we play our game on our side of the net, and we did," said CVCC head women's volleyball coach Shannon Hudson. "We had a couple of slow starts, but once they kind of woke up this (Saturday) morning, they played really well. Friday night they played together as a team. I'm happy for the three-straight wins. It was nice."
Below are the results from all three matches involving the Red Hawks:
CVCC 3, Bryant & Stratton 0
The Red Hawks tallied a season-high 18 aces, serving their way to a 3-0 Region X victory against host Bryant & Stratton College in the opening day of the Bobcats' two-day tournament on Friday.
Set scores were 25-7, 25-10 and 25-14.
Freshman Emily Williams paced CVCC (6-3, 4-0 in conference play) with seven of those aces, while fellow freshmen Katie Rupp and Adair Melton added three aces each.
"We had a lot of focus on (serving) this past week," Hudson said. "We struggled over the past few matches with our serve and just being consistently aggressive. They did a lot better with it. That was nice to see them kind of take what we learned in practice last week and put that into play this weekend with our serves."
Melton registered a team-high 11 kills, while CVCC sophomore Leslie Leonard was just behind with 10 kills.
Defensively, Williams also led the Red Hawks with 10 digs, and freshman Emilee Webber dished out a team-best 13 assists.
CVCC 3, Richard Bland 0
Battling back from a slow start, the Red Hawks swept Saturday's opening tournament match against the Statesmen.
Catawba Valley (7-3) fought back from down 20-17 in set one to win a thrilling 27-25 opening stanza.
Taking a 10-6 lead in set two against Richard Bland, CVCC distanced itself event further — winning 13 of the next 14 points — including seven on the serve of Emilee Webber. She tallied a team-high seven aces in the contest.
The Red Hawks eventually claimed the set 25-14 before going on to win a convincing third set, 25-6.
Adair Melton paced CVCC in the match with nine kills, while Sabrina Pinard and Ramsey Fulmer added six kills each.
CVCC 3, Macomb (Mich.) 0
Catawba Valley closed out its tournament play with a convincing straight-sets victory against the Monarchs.
Setting the tone early, the Red Hawks (8-3) dominated in set one, winning the first 14 points off the serve of Emilee Webber before claiming the set, 25-7. Webber had a team-high six aces against Macomb.
CVCC went on to win competitive second and third sets — 25-17 and 25-17 — to earn its sweep.
Leslie Leonard and Adair Melton paced a balanced offensive attack for the Red Hawks with seven kills each Sabrina Pinard and Karsyn Mundy added six and five kills apiece, respectively.
Defensively, Catawba Valley's Emily Williams made 23 digs in the contest.
The Red Hawks carry their six-match winning streak into Tuesday's home match at 7 p.m. against Belmont Abbey at the Tarlton Complex.
Hudson is looking forward to the match up against the Crusaders.
"It'll be great competition," she said. "That'll be nice to go play them. They have some really strong hitters.They're a good blocking team, and their ball control is phenomenal. That'll be good for us to face some tough competition there in the middle of the week before our tournament next weekend."
