LAURINBURG — The Lady Scots volleyball suffered a surprising 3-1 loss to Hoke on Thursday in Raeford.
The Lady Scots took a closely contested first set, 26-24 before dropping the next three, 21-25, 22-25 and 18-25. The team played without head coach Mallory Wheeler who was out with the stomach flu.
When the two teams met in August the Lady Scots easily handled the Lady Bucks in three sets, 25-15, 26-24 and 25-17.
The loss moves the Lady Scots to 12-7 overall and 6-4 in Sandhills Athletic Conference play while Hoke moves to 10-9 overall and 6-4 in conference play.
The two teams are now tied for third in the SAC-8 standings at 6-4 behind undefeated Richmond at 10-0 and Pinecrest in second at 7-3. Jack Britt is still hanging around in fifth place at 5-5 followed by Lumberton at 3-6 and Purnell in seventh at 2-8 followed by Seventy-First in eighth at 0-9.
The Lady Scots have four more games to finish out the regular season. Next week, the Lady Scots are on the road on Tuesday at Seventy-First before heading to Southern Pines on Thursday to play Pinecrest.
The following week, the Lady Scots will celebrate Senior Night on Oct. 10 while hosting Lumberton and finish out their schedule on Oct. 12 with a trip to Rockingham to play Richmond. All four games will begin at 5 p.m.
After the conclusion of the season, teams will be seeded for the first Sandhills Athletic Conference Tournament.
The conference champion and runner up will receive automatic bids to the NCHSAA 4A volleyball playoffs; unless, the regular season and conference champion are the same team. In that case, only that team receives an automatic bid.
Once all of the champions have been seeded, the remaining slots are based on overall record.
Seeding for volleyball begins Oct. 19 and the first round of the NCHSAA playoffs begins Oct. 21.
Amber Hatten can be reached at 910-506-3170.