CHOCOWINITY — After earning back-to-back 1-A Coastal Plains Conference wins against Bear Grass and Jones Senior, Southside kicked off its week getting swept, 3-0, by South Creek. The Lady Seahawks had an underwhelming showing on defense and plenty of service errors en route to the loss.

Southside came out flat with a 25-13 loss in the first set. An impressive diving dig by Savannah Edwards wasn’t enough to keep the visiting Lady Cougars from taking the opening set.

“I tell a lot of the players, ‘Let’s get it together. You know you can do this,” coach Atyana Starkie said. “They know what they’re supposed to do. Sometimes we’ll go into a timeout or at the end of a set and go over what we need to do.”

The two teams went back and forth to open the second set. Two service errors early on cost Southside opportunities to pull away. Tied at nine apiece, South Creek went on a 9-2 run to take an 18-11 lead. Nay Everett and McKenzi Pierce were strong serving as each had an ace during the run.

Hannah Paramore and Andrea Waters each had a serving ace, too, as they tried to help the Lady Seahawks bounce back. Danielle Ruffin added an ace of her own to bring them within three, 22-19, but South Creek was able to earn a 25-21 win to take a 2-0 lead.

“We are lacking so much defense,” Starkie said. “I tell the girls all the time when they’re going up for a block or an attack, we’ve got to get up and be ready. But, the biggest thing is defense.”

The Lady Seahawks continued struggling with their serves. It helped the Lady Cougars jump out to a 9-3 lead in the third set. With their backs against the wall, Ruffin sent over a fantastic serve and Taylor Langley finished it. The kill cut South Creek’s lead to 12-9.

The set remained close as it progressed. Kinyara Daniels’ kill cut Southside’s deficit to just one point, 17-16. However, South Creek ended up conceding just two more points in the set. The Lady Seahawks gave up the match point on a service error to fell 25-18.

 

The game was a break from Southside’s conference slate. Even though it didn’t affect their league record, Starkie would have liked for the Lady Seahawks to pick up the win to start a condensed week.

“I still wanted it,” she said. “They’re a good team, but we’ve got some bigger teams and battles to fight.”

Southside travels to conference foe Lejeune on Tuesday.