Manteo Middle claims volleyball win over Moyock

Published 5:32 am Thursday, April 22, 2021

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Manteo Middle School prevailed in a marathon volleyball match Monday against Moyock Middle school winning the best of five sets 3-2.

Playing at Moyock, the home team Bulldogs and visiting Braves appeared to be pretty evenly matched in the opening first set. With as many points scored on errors as there were on skill, the score was tied 15 different times before Moyock prevailed with a 25-23 win.

In the second set, Manteo tied the score at 1-1 before falling behind in a 25-14 Moyock win. It was, however, a different Manteo team in the third set.

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Jumping to a 4-0 lead, the Braves were clearly in control of the third set. Although Moyock was able to battle back to a 10-10 tie, the visiting Braves regained composure and moved ahead without looking back to take the third set 25-16.

Taking the first two points for an early fourth set, Manteo was again in control. The best the Bulldogs could do was to come within four points of Manteo, who never lost the lead on the way to a 25-17 win.

With the afternoon’s score now at two games each, an enthusiastic crowd cheered loudly for each point scored in the final tie-breaker.

After Manteo jumped to a 5-0 lead, the home team proved the game was far from over and battled back to tie the score at 5-5 and then tie it again at 6-6. Although the Bulldogs were able to find open spots in the Manteo defense, the momentum was on Manteo’s side of the net and the Braves slowly moved ahead for the 15-13 win and the overall match.

“I thought our girls battled pretty hard,” said Chris Ferretti, Moyock Middle School’s volleyball coach. “We kept going back and forth, but I liked that they never stopped fighting. That was really a big thing. Even when they were behind a bit quite a bit, they just kept fighting back and I’m proud of them.”

Although her team got off to a slow start, Heather Sulkowski, Manteo Middle School’s volleyball coach, was equally pleased with her team.

“It was one of the best wins we’ve ever had to come back like that,” said Sulkowski. “Tonight we didn’t get off the bus until the third set. The first set was okay, but we were just not in our groove.”

She went on to say Moyock was hitting a lot of deep balls and her team was not covering that well and her efforts at motivation had little effect. Then, in the third set, her team decided to turn it on.

“Everybody played and everybody had a good game and everybody had a bad game,” Sulkowski added with a chuckle.

Both teams have one remaining regular season match on Thursday, April 22, with Moyock scheduled to play at Currituck and First Flight at Manteo. Both are 5 p.m. games.

The conference tournament begins Monday, April 26, with a semi-final game April 29 and championship finals at Currituck May 3.

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