By Dylan Branscome
September 27, 2024 – The Davidson-Davie STORM defeated the Guilford Tech Titans in three sets (25-6 25-15 25-22) at Brinkley Gym on Thursday night, improving to 4-12 on the season. Davidson-Davie was led by Lucy Lockwood (4 aces, 5 kills, 4 solo blocks) and Mackenzie Roach (6 aces, 10 assists), which helped Davidson-Davie to great team win.
Davidson-Davie absolutely dominated in the first set against the Titans. The STORM capitalized on mistakes GTCC made throughout the set while also showing their offensive prowess. Lockwood had a nice highlight halfway through the set, where she blocked an incoming attack and then followed it up with a strong kill.Julie Johnston, Isabella Grieser, and Lockwood were all able to get two kills each, while Johnston and Roach were able to grab aces.
Roach and Lockwood exploded with aggressive serves in the second set. They both combined for seven aces for the STORM. Lockwood also got another solo block, adding to her two from the first set. She also got two back-to-back aces against the Titans. Roach had the same sequnce later in the set, which helped make for an entertaining set. Emma Davis scored her first stats of the match with a pair of kills, and Davidson-Davie dominated once again.
The third set, while the STORM were ahead for most of it, got more intense towards the end. Davidson-Davie relied on the Titans making mistakes again this set, while also still playing strong offensively. Davis grabbed another two kills, while Lockwood and Grieser also added a couple. Two aces were scored as well from Logann Beaver and Lockwood. The Storm were up sizably when the Titans had a long run to close the gap, getting as close as three points to tying. But the STORM were still able to close it out narrowly.
Davidson-Davie scored a total of twelve aces in this match, ten from Roach and Lockwood alone. When asked on how the STORM were able to score so quickly, head coach Emma Carter said “We have been working every day on being aggresive with our serves. They have continued to be more consistent every game and they served well tonight!”
The STORM return to action in a POD day this weekend, where they will face the Lenoir Community College Lancers and the Pitt Community College Bulldogs at the Pitt Community College facility. The match against Lenoir will start at 3:00 PM EDT and the Pitt match will begin at 5:00 PM EDT.