PEMBROKE — The Scotland volleyball team scored on 12 consecutive serves by Nikki Strickland in the fourth set on the way to a 3-1 (13-25, 25-20, 25-20, 25-9) win on Wednesday against Sandhills Athletic Conference foe Purnell Swett.
“We had a little bit of tenacity,” Scotland coach Mallarie Snow said. “We kind of came out flat in our first match. The second and third match were kind of slow. In the fourth match, our serving helped us out.”
The Lady Scots (5-6, 4-3 SAC) completed a season sweep of Purnell Swett (2-9, 0-6) after also defeating the Lady Rams 3-2 at home on Aug. 28.
Wednesday’s game was played at Pembroke Middle School’s gym. Purnell Swett’s gym has been serving as a shelter as the region continues to recover from Hurricane Florence.
Scotland was able to recover from a 3-0 loss at Jack Britt on Tuesday night – the team’s first game since Aug. 10.
Snow said she expected that her team would need some time to regroup after Florence forced several postponements and cancellations over the last couple of weeks.
“I knew it was going to be kind of shaky,” Snow said. “We had Jack Britt last night, and that was kind of all over the place. Tonight we started off a little slow, but Purnell Swett’s hustle is top-notch to me. I think we did a great job.”
Purnell Swett jumped out to a 12-1 lead in the first set, but the Lady Scots rallied and closed the gap to 13-12. The Lady Rams then went on another 12-1 run to earn a 25-13 victory.
After the Lady Scots won both of the next two sets 25-20, Strickland’s late serving streak powered them to a 25-8 victory in the deciding set.
“When we needed her, she pulled it out,” Snow said of Strickland’s performance.
Scotland’s next game is against Hoke on Thursday. The game will be played in Scotland’s old gym. The jayvee teams will square off at 5 p.m., and the varsity game will start approximately 30 minutes after that contest ends.
More scores and stats will be posted to laurinburgexchange.com as they become available.
