 "Photo: Chi Brown / Echo staff reporter")
Plagued by the injuries of three starters, the N.C. Central Volleyball team suffered four consecutive losses in its 5th annual RTP/NCCU Volleyball tournament held Aug. 26-27.
The Lady Eagles had to make necessary adjustments to their lineup in order to accommodate such losses.
"Currently we have three of our starters out right now so that's one of the reasons why we're pretty up and down right now in terms of our play," said Coach Crawford-Crooks. There is no particular time-table for these players return.
The Lady Eagles started off slow in their first two matches, losing in straight sets (0-3) to the Lady Phoenix of Elon (25-17, 25-14, 25-20) and the Lady Camels of Campbell (25-16, 25-17, 25-14).
The Lady Eagles demonstrated potential in its young players and seasoned veterans as they got off to quick starts, winning the first sets in their final two matches.
"Of course we have five or six freshmen but they came in, we took them into the team, so the team spirit we have is really strong. We know each other very well," said Kalao.
Freshman Dayanna Arrufat led the Eagles with 17 kills in the third match against the visiting Eagles, while sophomore Jzima-Malaki Kalao added 10 kills and nine of the team's 32 digs. Freshman Ashley McCarthy also contributed with seven digs.
"The depth we have, it says a lot for our program in terms of our recruiting," said Crawford-Crooks.
The return of senior Shantel Moore (14 kills) from an injury sustained against Elon provided hope, but that was not enough to derail the Lady Pirates, who downed the Lady Eagles in 5 sets in the final game of the tournament.
Errors in the serve-receive would prove detrimental as the final two matches ended in defeat, (23-25, 25-12, 24-13, 28-26) to the Lady Eagles of Florida Gulf Coast and (23-25, 25-21, 25-23, 13-25, 15-5) to the Lady Pirates of Hampton.
"The thing that we can improve upon is our serve-receive," said Crawford-Crooks. Despite those errors, coaches and players noticed flashes of potential.
"One of the things that I liked was they came out and worked hard," said Crawford-Crooks. The Lady Eagles go right back to work Aug. 30 versus in-state opponent Davidson.
"I think we have a lot of depth like we know each other very well since we have five seniors," said Kalao. Arrufat echoed the same sentiments.
"I think that we should talk more, like we just had two weeks to practice. Maybe with more time we're going to be a very strong team," said Arufat.
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