Wilmington, NC - The Cape Fear women's volleyball team won their first of two matches of the day, defeating Bryant & Stratton College 3-0.
After giving up the opening point of the first set, the Sea Devils rallied for six straight to build an early lead. A botched serve for Cape Fear would break the streak, but then they would score seven more in a row, forcing Bryant & Stratton to call a timeout with Cape Fear leading 13-2.
Cape Fear was in control for all of the first set, catching Bryant & Stratton off guard more than once. The Bobcats were unable to handle many of the Sea Devils' attacks, which led to the large lead.
Towards the end of the first set, Bryant & Stratton earned a few points back after Cape Fear made a couple of errors, but the home team would earn the last three points of the set to win 25-8.
Bryant & Stratton took an early 2-1 lead at the start of the second set, but Cape Fear would quickly earn the lead back. The Bobcats would keep it closer however, forcing the Sea Devils into a couple of errors.
Mid-way through the second set, Cape Fear held a small lead, but Bryant & Stratton began gaining a lot of confidence, forcing the home team to call timeout with the score 10-9.
Out of the timeout, the Bobcats continued to test the Sea Devils, but the home team managed to start a small rally, pushing the lead out to 15-10 before the away team called timeout.
Bryant & Stratton scored the opening point out of the timeout, but then Cape Fear would score the next three to push the lead out to 18-11. At this point, Cape Fear had settled down after their earlier struggles in the set, but Bryant & Stratton remained confident.
The two teams would battle back and forth for the remainder of the set, but it would end with the Sea Devils taking the set 25-15.
"I'm proud with the way they fought [in the second set]," said head coach Emily Colman. "They didn't give up, but we can't take mental lapses against teams like this that we should take care of easily. We have to a better job of that if we want to be successful the rest of the season."
Cape Fear opened the third set with two aces by freshman Ali Jenkins. They would gain early momentum off this, jumping out to a 4-0 lead.
After a bit of back and forth, Cape Fear would put together a number of strong attacks, pushing the lead out to 12-4. The Sea Devils were in synch, finding it easy to score.
The Bobcats were unable to put together any kind of rally, and the Sea Devils continued to build a large lead. The third set would end 25-9.
Aside from parts of the second set, Cape Fear was the stronger side. Their organization played a big part in handling many of Bryant & Stratton's attacks.
Afterwards, coach Coleman said her team had "moments of greatness" today, she was wasn't totally pleased with the team's overall effort. "I am a little disappointed in our effort overall. We've been working on being clean and consistent, and I think they sometimes pick and choose when they want to play hard, but we put it together in the end."
Today's early match was the first of two for Cape Fear today, with their second match set for 3:00 p.m.
Courtesy of Nick Denning
