Notebook: Rolesville wins first volleyball game

After two winless seasons, the Rolesville volleyball team won its season opener in thrilling fashion Monday, 3-2 against nonconference rival Wake Forest.

The Rams (1-1) prevailed 24-26, 25-19, 25-22, 16-25 and 15-13.

Rolesville, now in its first school year with a senior class, was 0-40 as a program over its first two seasons.

Sophomore Hannah Escala had eight assists, 10 digs and seven aces in the win. Classmate Mary Elaine Murdock had nine kills.

JUSA Cup: The Johnston County United Soccer Association Cup third-place and championship games have been pushed back to Thursday after rain washed out Tuesday’s semifinals.

West Johnston, Corinth Holders, South Johnston and Clayton are in the semifinals of the six-team tournament. Thursday’s games are scheduled for 6 and 8 p.m. at West Johnston.

Tickets on sale: Southeast Raleigh’s football team will be part of the Derrick Law Firms Carolinas Kickoff Clash in Myrtle Beach, S.C., on Aug. 29. The weekend event will feature five games – one Thursday, one Friday and three, including Southeast Raleigh’s game against South Florence (S.C.) on Saturday – with a North Carolina school playing a South Carolina school.

Southeast Raleigh will take the field at 5:15 p.m. at Doug Shaw Stadium. Advance tickets sold through the school are $10 for the entire event, discounted from the original $12 price.

Wake County Cup: Broughton’s Elvis Wiredu scored three first-half goals to lead the Capitals boys’ soccer team past Garner 7-1 in the opening round of the Wake County Cup on Monday.

Apex also won its Wake County Cup opener, 4-1 at Heritage.

The Cup, in its third season, has six teams and a group-stage format. Apex and Heritage share a group with Raleigh Charter, and Broughton and Garner are in a group with Cardinal Gibbons.

The top teams in each group will face one another Sept. 19 at Cardinal Gibbons in the championship (7 p.m.), with the fifth- (3 p.m.) and third-place (5 p.m.) games preceding it.

Gibbons wins marathon shutout: Cardinal Gibbons defeated Cary Academy 9-0 in girls’ tennis on Tuesday, but it was the longest of sweeps. The match lasted a little more than three hours. Cary Academy coach Stryling Strother said the average singles match was two hours.

Cardinal Gibbons showed its strength in doubles, however, with No. 1 pair Lizzie Galush and Jenna Knors winning 8-2 over Ellie Johnson and Taylor Timiniskas and the other two matches going 8-0 to the Crusaders.　

Friendship’s first game: The first varsity game in Apex Friendship’s history was Monday night as the Patriots fell 8-0 in boys’ soccer to Leesville Road. Friendship had a player sent off eight minutes into the match for a tackle from behind and had to play one player down.

“I was pleasantly surprised with how we responded to that red card and just the way we fought throughout the game against a bigger, stronger, faster team,” Friendship coach Derek Blackwelder said. “Being down a player against a really good team like Leesville is going to be tough. I don’t think the scoreline would’ve been the same if we had all 11.”

Leesville Road, led by four Alyddin Dardar goals, was in a similiar situation 22 years ago when it opened, as coach Paul Dinkenor recalls.

“I have some nice memories of 1993 when we got shellacked. But I think, as we did, (Apex Friendship) is capable of winning quite a few games. They had a lot of people and I thought they subbed well, in fours and fives.”

The Patriots’ volleyball and tennis teams will open their inaugural seasons Thursday at home against Fuquay-Varina.

This story was originally published August 19, 2015 at 11:36 AM with the headline "Notebook: Rolesville wins first volleyball game."