Entering the fourth week of the season, only one county in North Carolina could say that they boast three unbeaten volleyball teams.

Something had to give on Wednesday night at Ayden-Grifton. The No. 7 ranked Chargers welcomed in No. 17 J.H. Rose with the two sides entering the Pitt County showdown a combined 16-0.

For a third time this year, Ayden-Grifton fell into a two-set deficit before battling back to win 3-2 in five.

The Chargers first began to show life late in the first. J.H. Rose established an early lead before holding on late to claim the opening set 25-20.

Lainy Evans opened the second set on a big run to give the Chargers a lead as large as 17-13. Out of a timeout, the Rampants answered with a 5-0 run and never looked back. Maya Swaggerty and Caroline Bayes teamed up with Clara Evans finish off the second with a 25-22 win and grab a 2-0 lead in the match.

Ayden-Grifton first proved its resiliency on August 15 in its second match of the season. Ashylnn Overby and Lainy Evans combined for 31 kills in a 3-2 reverse sweep at South Central. Five days later, the Chargers did the same in a come-from-behind win at West Carteret.

Overby took the first crack at marching Ayden-Grifton back into Wednesday’s match. She opened up a 7-point third set lead, and Lainy Evans took over from there to put a 25-18 win on ice.

The new-found momentum carried into the fourth as the Chargers quickly found themselves ahead 8-2. Clara Evans and Swaggerty fought back to eventually knot the fourth at 16-16, but aces from Lainy Evans and Shelby Makepeace highlighted a set-ending 9-2 run to force a decisive fifth set.

It felt like the first team that would be able to open up a 2-3 point lead would be in full control. That proved to be true when Ayden-Grifton weathered a flurry of strong digs from Anne Price Duke and J.H. Rose to finally carve out a 9-7 fifth set lead.

Once Madison House and Lainy Evans were able to bring the Chargers back from a 7-6 deficit, Evans took care of the rest. Kills from both the left and right side inflated the score to 12-9, and Overby put a bow on the match with a game-winning ace.

Ayden-Grifton improves to 8-0 this season. The Chargers are currently ranked as the top volleyball team in HighSchoolOT’s 252 area code rankings, and on Thursday they quickly turnaround to host North Pitt in a conference match.

J.H. Rose, who falls to 9-1 overall, has just as big of a match on Thursday night when it returns home to face rival D.H. Conley who is 8-0 and Top-10 in HighSchoolOT’s latest statewide volleyball rankings.

HighSchoolOT updates weekly NCHSAA playoff projections based off of the state’s RPI formula. This information is available for those who are HighSchoolOT Insiders. To view the most recent projections, click below.

Source: highschoolot.com