The North Surry volleyball team was pushed to the limit and responded with a thrilling 3-2 victory over visiting Newton-Conover to advance to the championship match of the 2A West division of the NCHSAA tournament.

The Greyhounds won the second, third and fifth sets by scores of 25-22, 25-17 and 15-12, respectively. Newton-Conover took the first and fourth sets, 26-24 and 25-23.

“We were in a fight from start to finish today,” North Surry coach Shane Slate said. “Conover is an excellent team and they really gave us all we could handle today.”

Courtney Campbell had a team-high 21 kills, followed by Morgan Bunker with 17.

“Bunker and Campbell gave us a big 1-2 punch on the left side all year and today that was crucial because we played out of a system (with) a lot of reacting to their attacks and Kara (Hodges) had no choice but to set the left side.”

Hodges, who won homecoming queen during halftime of Friday night’s football game, had a season-high 55 assists. The Greyhounds got strong performances from the service line by Sara Parker (18 of 18 with three aces) and Emily Culler (16 of 16 with an ace).

Defensively, Nicole Rumplasch was a force at the net with eight blocks, followed by Summer Robertson with seven and Morgan Bunker with six.

“They were a tough matchup defensively because they do a great job of moving their best hitters around,” Slate said. “But we countered each adjustment with good blocking to limit strings of Conover points.”

The Greyhounds (31-0) will travel to Randleman (22-3) for the West title Nov. 3. Slate said his squad showed heart, plus the ability to learn from the experience and that should help down the road.

“We always responded and that is important if you want to continue to play because everyone is good at this point in the season,” he said. “We overcame a lot of good plays on their part and some mistakes on ours, so we know we can play in a tough match now.”