Six sophomores were honored before the Sandhills Community College volleyball team prepped for postseason play with a 25-5, 25-4, 25-5 romp over visiting Vance Granville CC Wednesday evening.

The Flyers, under head coach Alicia Hill, improved to 14-8 overall and 6-2 in Region X. It won’t be the final home match for the sophomores. The Region X Tournament will be held at Heins Gymnasium on Saturday, Oct. 27.

The problems for the team from the north began with handling the Flyer serve. Led by Union Pines graduate Maggie Trout with 11 aces, the home team recorded 33 in all. Janie Bounds contributed to a big Flyer advantage at the net.

Bounds (Red Springs), Trout (Union Pines), Catherine Monroe (Union Pines), Sara Randall (Brocton Central, N.Y.), McKenzie White (Chatham Central) and student manager Adrian Hobbs all have plans to continue their education upon graduation from Sandhills.

After the match, Bounds and Randall talked about what brought them to the college. Bounds plans to remain at SCC to complete studies to become an RN. Randall plans to transfer to UNC Pembroke in January with the long term goal of attending medical school and becoming a surgeon.

“Volleyball, definitely, that’s what made my decision,” Bounds said. “And just the whole atmosphere here — I love Sandhills. Everybody is so nice here.”

How did Randall find her way here from the Lake Erie region of New York?

“Getting to play volleyball by far,” she said. “When I graduated from high school, it was either play volleyball in college or go in the military. I was a mechanic in the Army at Fort Bragg. Now I’ve gotten to do both.”

Monroe plans to transfer to St. Andrews and become a teacher. Trout is headed for East Carolina to pursue a career in physical therapy. Like Bounds, White plans to stay at SCC in hopes of becoming a nurse. Hobbs is another who plans to transfer to East Carolina.

“I’m really going to miss all of them,” Hill said.

Lying ahead is an almost certain meeting for the Flyers in the conference tournament final against a Davidson County CC team that handed them their only two conference losses. They will play a noon semifinal match on Oct. 27 at Heins with the anticipated title game with the Storm following at 4 p.m.

“I feel very confident,” Hill said. “Obviously, we finished out strong with a win tonight. We have a week without any games so we have to make sure we stay focused and get ready. It’s between us and Davidson every year. They’re beatable. We’re very excited.”

The statistical leaders for the Flyers going into this week’s matches were: assists — Cierra Collins 256, Marymegan Farley 199; kills — Erin Kenworthy 160, Bounds 157, Randall 93; digs — Morgan Chavis 442, Kenworthy 304, Randall 234, Farley 213.