Jeff Linville | The News

Surry Central’s Brittany Lewis, left, gets a kill through the block attempt of East Surry’s Keri Fulp, right, as Cassidy Joyner (3) looks on. Fulp got a stuff on the very next rally as the two players battled all game long.

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DOBSON — Surry Central came back from a set down to defeat East Surry 3-2 in volleyball Thursday.

October means Halloween, and the Lady Eagles rose from the grave to avenge a 3-1 loss to the Lady Cardinals on Sept. 11.

Not only did the Cards hold a 2-1 lead, but the third set wasn’t close.

The Cards jumped out to a 5-1 lead in that frame, then led 7-4 when middle hitter Keri Fulp went to the bench. Rather than lose ground, the Cards built on that lead, getting six straight points to lead 13-4.

Central Coach Carrie Hutchens burned both timeouts, but couldn’t stop the momentum as East won 25-9.

“Anything and everything we did in that set wasn’t working,” said Hutchens.

The girls were wound so tight in the first three sets, she noticed. They wanted this win so bad, and their determination showed through after getting down on themselves in that third set.

The Eagles won 25-21 in the fourth set to force a 15-point tiebreaker.

East Surry took the lead, but the Eagles got the ball back, and Courtney Hegler served out the last seven points of the game for a 15-8 win.

Hegler was a perfect 23-23 serving in the match with a game-high eight aces.

The senior also had 15 digs, five kills and two stuff blocks.

Getting those blocks up strong was important going against the 6-foot-3 Fulp, Hutchens believed.

Brittany Lewis had several deflections and three stuffs. Kelsey Taylor and Kaitlin Kidd had two stuffs and Cassidy Joyner added one.

Kendra Johnson also came up big for the home team.

“She is one of the best liberos in the conference,” said Hutchens. Johnson had 17 digs, three kills from the back line, was 13-15 serving and provided plenty of hustle.

With East Surry having lost to West Stokes last week, the Eagles moved into second place in the Northwest Conference at 11-2, trailing only North Surry (14-0). The Cardinals (11-3) are firmly in third place as the next-closest teams all have losing records in conference play.

Other stats for the Eagles: Joyner had nine digs, Kidd seven, Tori Blevins four and three others had one.

Joyner led the team with 11 kills, Brittany Lewis four, Taylor three, Meagan Hutson two on setter dunks, Blevins two and Kidd one.

Hutson had nine assists, Holly Mason eight and Kidd five.

Mason was a perfect 9-9 serving. Hutson was 13-15, Joyner 11-14 with two aces, and Kidd 6-10 with three aces.

Reach Jeff Linville at jlinville@heartlandpublications.com or at 719-1920.