Taking care of business: Watauga VB carves out conference opener sweep of Spartans

September 13, 2023

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By David Rogers. BOONE, N.C. — Everything about the Watauga volleyball team’s challenging non-conference slate was to prepare them for this moment, the Northwestern Conference 2023 opener. With a dominating, 3-0 sweep (25-12, 25-15, 25-14), let’s just say the now 8-1 Pioneers were well-prepared.

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To be sure, their South Caldwell victims had their moments, keeping the ball in play for the occasional long rally following a desperately spectacular dig on ferocious kill shot by Watauga but, overall, they just didn’t have enough firepower to overcome the Pioneers. Led by outside hitters Emma Pastusic’ and Brooklyn Stanbery’s 15 and 13 kills, respectively, and set up for those shots by Lainey Gragg (15 assists) and Madi Combs (21 assists), Watauga overwhelmed the Spartans with sheer firepower.

South Caldwell (8-2 coming into the conference opener with Watauga) had some hitters, too, but Watauga arrived at Lentz Eggers Gym ready to play defense, with strong individual efforts in keeping the ball in play that included digs by Evie Robbins (19 digs), Stanbery (9 digs), Lainey Gragg (8 digs) and Olivia Kop (9 digs).

“That’s where we start, defense,” said Pioneer head coach Kim Pryor afterwards. “I was really pleased with how our girls came out. We use (a challenging) non-conference schedule to get us ready for Northwestern Conference play. We played strong defense and our blocking came on in the second and third sets. Good defense leads to good offense and our girls were firing on all cylinders. South Caldwell had a scrappy defense and some great hitters, so we had to earn that win.”

Watauga stays at home for their next NWC contest on Sept. 18, vs. Alexander Central. The Cougars’ 1-7 record may be deceptive, since they played a strong non-conference schedule, too, including teams in the northern Charlotte suburbs.