KINGS MOUNTAIN, N.C. – Kings Mountain set the bar high with its Mountaineer Invitational field a year ago. The event featured two of the NCHSAA’s four eventual state champions.

With the bar raised even higher, the defending 3A state champions played their best volleyball of the season to protect its home court and claim the title.

Of the four teams that qualified for Saturday’s Gold Bracket, three entered the morning unbeaten. The one-loss Mountaineers ran the table against West Henderson, McMichael, and Ayden-Grifton to win the tournament in straight sets and improve to 15-1 overall.

All four Gold Bracket teams entered this past week ranked in the Statewide Volleyball Rankings: Top 10 goes undefeated, Hoggard lone newcomer in this week’s poll.

No. 12 Kings Mountain took home first place following a two-set win (25-23, 25-18) in the championship match against No. 7 Ayden-Grifton.

The Mounties leaned on a big Denet Houey run in the first set to grab a 1-0 lead. Kings Mountain’s lone seniors Alexa Jones and London Brown sealed the victory with a big second set.

Ayden-Grifton earned its way to the finals with a three-set win over No. 10 West Henderson. The Chargers dropped a narrow first set 26-24 before Ashlynn Overby and Lainy Evans rallied back to win the second 25-23 and the third 15-9.

In the first semi-final match of the afternoon, Kings Mountain swept No. 9 McMichael 25-17, 25-12.

All four teams went unbeaten in until final match of pool play. In Pool A, Kings Mountain defeated West Henderson while Ayden-Grifton took care of McMichael in Pool B. It was the first loss of the season for both the Falcons and Fighting Phoenix.

Kings Mountain takes its 15-1 overall record and 12-match winning streak on the road for a pair of conference matches at Stuart Cramer and Crest.

Ayden-Grifton has a big week ahead of it. On Tuesday, the Chargers travel to Washington before hosting Camden County on Wednesday and West Craven on Thursday.

McMichael hosts both West Stokes and North Forsyth this week while West Henderson goes on the road to North Henderson before hosting East Henderson.

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