Early Exit

Their history of volleyball the Lady Gryphons of Rocky Mount have never won past the second round. If you had of been there today you could see why because the way they were butted out of the playoffs by the Rams of Havelock is the same as every year.

Havelock was taller, more athletic and better at serving the ball. Those serves kept Rocky Mount just trying to get the ball back across the net most of the time and when it only just got over the net the Rams were waiting to knock it down the Lady Gryphons throat.

Havelock won the first game 25-20. The Lady Gryphons roared back taking game two 25-10. The third game was won by Havelock 25-20 and game four Rocky Mount had one foot in the grave down 24-21 and managed to come back from the dead to win game four 28-26. They were unable to use the momentum in the fifth game and were knocked out of the playoffs 15-10 in game five.

The Lady Gryphons finish the season 18-6. I do think being off nine days since the Big East conference tournament was not a help for Rocky Mount since Havelock did not provide a can of WD-40 in the first game for them to knock the rust off. Hunt was able to knock off win less Hertford County in Volleyball otherwise the conference took it on the chin. Nash Central and Northern Nash both a four seed and a three seed were on the road and failed to win a game losing 3-0 each.

The Coastal conference in Volleyball is very similar to Big East in football that the second and third seeded teams are as good as some conferences first seed. The Big East was 1-3 in the opening round while the Coastal was 4-1. Their only lost was fourth seeded West Craven the team that beat Rocky Mount in round two last year lost at undefeated Triton.

Sunday night on the Stretchlon Sports Show we will have a live show featuring the Renegades a 12 and under little league team that has qualified for a tournament next summer in Cooperstown New York. We will try to have the latest updates on Terry Pittman and Colt Brake who are both recovering from spinal football injuries.

This four way tie at the top in Big East football may not be so hard to figure out as it appeared. Northern Nash has played all three teams they are tied with. Hunt still must play Nash Central and Nash Central still has the final game with Southern Nash. Northern has the two last place teams Rocky Mount and Fike so their path to first place is wide open while the other three have to knock each other off. Northern needs to pull for Nash Central to beat Hunt since Hunt would holds the tie breaker with Northern.

All four of the teams tied at the top have their liabilities. Nash Central on offense is the only one that seems top be able to throw any at all. Their defense seems to be the least of the four. They have both Hunt and Southern left to play. Hunt, Northern and Southern run the ball and hope they never get behind because their passing might go to the wrong team.

This may be a real long shot but Rocky Mount is not dead in the water yet but they have both Southern and Northern to play. IF Rocky Mount were to beat both Southern and Northern they would be ahead of each in any tie breaker. This just might be wishful thinking but I'm thinking.