O'Neal Netters Advance to State Quarters

BY PATRICK LOVE: SPORTS EDITOR

The O'Neal School's volleyball team has won a high-stakes match against defending state champion Village Christian Academy before. Now, if the Lady Falcons want to advance to the semifinals of the state tournament they are hosting, they'll need to do it again.

The third-seeded Lady Falcons swept visiting 14th-seed Cape Fear Academy 3-0 (25-13, 25-22, 25-13) in the first round of the North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association Class 2A state tournament Tuesday. They advance to the quarterfinals to face sixth-seed Village Christian, which won in the first round 3-1 over 11th-seed Fayetteville Christian School.

The quarterfinal, semifinal and final rounds of the 2A state tournament are being hosted by the Lady Falcons in their two on-campus gyms this Friday and Saturday.

Quarterfinal matches begin at 10 a.m. Friday with top-seed High Point Academy (31-3) facing ninth-seed St. David's School (16-9), while second-seed Asheville Christian Academy (22-3) faces seventh-seed Cary Christian School (17-6). Then at noon, the host Lady Falcons (16-3) face off against Village Christian (15-6), while fourth-seed Southlake Christian Academy (21-3) battles fifth-seed Halifax Academy (7-5).

The semifinal matches will take place at 3:30 p.m. Friday, with the state championship match scheduled for Saturday at 11 a.m.

Last Thursday, O'Neal School beat Village Christian in straight sets on the last night of the regular season to win the Cape Fear Independent Conference championship. The atmosphere at that match was electric, with a large crowd and raucus student section.

Tuesday's state tournament opener was not nearly as widely attended, which left the Lady Falcons a bit let down.

"We were a little off," said coach Kendall Harper afterward. "We were not as high. That was the difference. That's winning or losing for us, especially against competitive teams."

Katherine Kelly served three straight points with two aces to open a first game in which senior setter Ellen Cowherd posted 13 of her game-high 31 assists.

"She's my go-to girl," Harper said of Cowherd. "She's the one that gets everybody pumped up, and if someone is down, she's the one to get them back up."

Cape Fear tied the game at 11-all and took a 12-11 lead on back-to-back aces, but O'Neal School answered with a Cowherd kill to tie the match at 12-all.

On her second rotation serving, Kelly served nine straight points as the Lady Falcons opened a 21-12 lead. She finished with a team-high 17 service points.

Back-to-back Alex DiMaggio kills brought the score to 24-13, and the game ended when a Cape Fear hit went out of bounds.

The second game saw the Lady Falcons get off to a promising start. But after taking an 8-4 lead on back-to-back Cowherd aces and extending it to 17-9 on a four-point Kelly service run, Cape Fear scored eight of the next 11 points to cut the deficit to 20-17.

A Cape Fear service error gave O'Neal a 21-17 lead, and a DiMaggio ace followed by a Kelly kill extended the lead to 23-17. Cape Fear followed a point with a service error to make the score 24-18.

O'Neal seemed to put the game away on the next point when a Meri-Liz Faulkner tip landed in bounds, but the senior was ruled to have crossed the line on the play, and the game continued.

Cape Fear scored three straight points to cut the deficit to 24-22 before O'Neal finally put the game away with a Kelly kill.

The third game was not nearly as close. O'Neal took leads of 9-2, 16-5 and 23-11 before extending its lead to 24-13 on a Faulkner kill. The game ended when a Cape Fear hit went into the net.

In addition to her 31 assists, Cowherd had six digs, four kills and two aces. Faulkner posted team-highs of 11 kills and six blocks, and Kelly and DiMaggio added eight kills apiece. DiMaggio also posted a team-high 11 digs and an ace, and Kelly finished with two aces.

Caroline McHenry finished with five digs and four kills, Kate Fedder had four kills, three digs and an ace and KellyAnn Miller posted four digs.