Jeff Linville/The News

First-year coach Carrie Hutchens has led Surry Central to a 7-2 start in volleyball this season. On Thursday, the Lady Eagles beat Bishop 3-1.

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DOBSON — Surry Central returned to its winning ways with a 3-1 win in volleyball Thursday over Bishop McGuinness.

The Lady Eagles had a six-game winning streak snapped at East Surry on Tuesday, but bounced back at home.

Coach Carrie Hutchens said the matches were closer than they should have been. The Eagles performed well at times, but also played down to Bishop’s level and let the Lady Villains hang around.

Central took a narrow win in each of the first two sets: 25-23 and 25-22.

Then in the third game, the Eagles let Bishop build a lead and weren’t able to come all the way back, losing 22-25.

The team rallied after that and took the fourth set 25-19, Hutchens said.

The win improves Central to 7-2, 6-1 in the Northwest Conference.

The kills were spread around very well, the coach noted. Cassidy Joyner led with eight, but three others had seven: Brittany Lewis, Courtney Hegler and Kelsey Taylor. Kaitlin Kidd added five and Tori Blevins three.

Lewis and Taylor led the team with three stuff blocks each, and Joyner added one.

The girls did a good job with blocks, noted Hutchens. In addition to the stuffs, the team had several partial blocks and blocks back to the other team.

That made Bishop start aiming around or over the defense, which hurt the Villains’ attack.

Libero Kendra Johnson made 16 digs, Joyner 12, Brooke Lewis seven and Kidd three.

Holly Mason led the Eagles with 13 assists; Meagan Hutson had 10 and Kidd five.

“I couldn’t ask for any better service,” Hutchens said.

The Eagles were 78-88 at the line, 88.6 percent accuracy.

That included Joyner going 19-20, Hutson 14-15 and Mason 9-9.

Surry Central has two road matches next week. They travel to North Surry on Tuesday and West Stokes on Thursday.