Charlotte Latin volleyball beats rival Country Day 3-0

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By Corey Inscoe

Charlotte Latin volleyball coach Suzie Pignetti said her team battled nerves in its match against conference rival Charlotte Country Day and had an “up and down” performance Thursday.

That performance was still enough for the Hawks (20-1) to beat Country Day (22-2) 3-0 (25-16, 25-17, 25-21) and move to 2-0 in Charlotte Independent Schools Athletic Association play.

“I think we had some nerves going on. I’m glad that we pushed forward and did what we have to do to win,” said Pignetti.

Latin’s two hard-hitting outside hitters led the way offensively. Senior Eve Davis led the team with 19 kills and junior Kellie Williams added nine kills and led the team with 14 digs. Senior setter Emma Price controlled the offense with 29 assists.

“Eve always comes ready to play,” said Pignetti. “She’s definitely, with Kellie Williams, our go-to players and people know that and they still can’t stop them. They’re kind of nice weapons to have.”

Country Day never had a lead in the match and only tied the Hawks three times during the three sets. The Bucs were able to stay close early in each of the sets but could never put together enough points to take a lead.

Latin finished the first set on a 10-3 run and had a 6-0 runs in the middle of the second and third sets to pull away.

An abnormally high amount of serving errors (13 in the match) plagued the Bucs throughout, cutting short Country Day runs.

“We’ve never missed this many serves ... so that was a little frustrating,” said Rosen. “I feel like everyone just had their worst serving day at the same time.”

Rosen still felt like his team played well. Sophomore Katharine Franz led the team with 10 kills and sophomore Taylor Portland had nine. Senior Megan Lewis had 26 assists for the Bucs and senior Mattie Newson had 16 digs.

Country Day hasn’t beaten Latin, or even won a set, in the four years that Rosen has been coaching the Bucs. Rosen hopes his team can continue to improve after the loss.

“I feel like we can definitely take positives away from this, knowing that areas where we were worst in today (serving and receiving) are our strengths,” said Rosen. “I don’t see those mistakes happening again.”

Latin has won eight straight N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association state championships and has a good chance of winning a ninth, but the Hawks rely on two freshman starters, Dalila Mendygaziyeva and Chanin Scott. Pignetti hopes they continue to gain confidence as the season continues.

“We’re still trying to grow every day in practice and bring our young kids up,” she said. “We’re not done yet.”