Notebook: Volleyball races come down to the final week

Fuquay-Varina will host Panther Creek on Thursday for first place in the Southwest Wake Athletic 4A volleyball standings. The regular season officially ends Wednesday, but Thursday’s match is the last for both.

Neither the Bengals (16-4, 13-2) or Panther Creek (17-2, 13-2) has won a conference title in the sport since Fuquay-Varina moved up to 4A in 2001.

The Two Rivers 3A also will come down to Thursday as Corinth Holders (12-8, 7-2) will host Cleveland (18-2, 7-2).

In other conference volleyball races, Broughton (17-0, 12-0) clinched the Cap-8 4A with a Tuesday sweep of Leesville Road, West Johnston (13-6, 10-3) has the Greater Neuse 4A, Cardinal Gibbons (10-3, 9-0) locked up the PAC-6 4A and South Granville (19-3, 13-0) has the Northern Carolina 2A.

Smithfield-Selma wins Two Rivers 3A girls’ golf: Smithfield-Selma senior Parker Watson was the Two Rivers 3A girls’ player of the year after she led the Spartans to the conference and tournament titles Tuesday at Reedy Creek Country Club.

“It means so much. I’ve come close the past two years, but winning it my senior year makes it so special,” Watson said. “I got down on myself. I really put a lot of pressure on myself today. It did get really rough. I had a lot of help from my coach and teammates as well to get me back on track.”

The Smithfield-Selma standout edged Corinth Holders’ Peyton LaBonte, who entered the day tied with Watson in total strokes for the season. After their highest nine-hole scores were discarded, Watson finished with a 41.83 average and LaBonte came in at 42.

Triton’s Kathryn Elliott was the individual medalist Tuesday with an 85, one ahead of Watson and two ahead of LaBonte. Elliott finished third on the year, just ahead of South Johnston’s Sydney Wheeless.

Smithfield-Selma and Triton shared the team lead at 283. The Spartans finished the season with three match wins and a second-place finish to Triton last week. Corinth Holders was third, South Johnston fourth and Cleveland fifth.

Dyer, Triton duo win Two Rivers 3A: There wasn’t much intrigue left when the Two Rivers 3A girls’ tennis tournaments moved to the final match stage Tuesday at Smithfield-Selma High. Both the singles and doubles championships were won at love (6-0, 6-0), continuing the domination trends shown throughout the league regular season by Corinth Holders and Triton.

Corinth Holders (13-1 overall) won its first dual-team conference title, ending Triton’s long reign. The Hawks (14-2) finished second with Cleveland (7-8) overall in third.

The Pirates had three of the four singles semifinalists: top-seeded Megan Dyer, Ashley Stufano and Alex Rodier. Dyer won the singles title.

“It’s a fantastic honor. I feel proud to have worked so hard the last four years to achieve this,” Dyer said. “I just have a lot more drive to do my best and play all the way through.”

Triton’s Emily Neville and Madison Newton continued their stellar season in rolling to the doubles championship, downing teammates Bailey Williams and Hailey Melgarejo 6-0, 6-0. Neville and Newton are 15-0 on the season and Tuesday’s championship was their second consecutive conference title.

Other titles: N.C. Science & Math won its conference girls’ golf title Monday at the South Granville Country Club in Creedmoor. The Unicorns (140) finished four strokes better than Franklin Academy and seven better than South Granville. The league combines girls golf-playing schools from the Northern Carolina 2A and North Central 1A.

In the Cape Fear Valley 3A, Lee County won the girls’ golf tournament and season titles.

D. Clay Best contributed.

This story was originally published October 14, 2015 at 7:29 PM with the headline "Notebook: Volleyball races come down to the final week."