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Grace Hayes had 36 assists, two kills, five digs and a block on Thursday night, leading Watauga High to a road victory over McDowell that wrapped up a Northwestern 3A-4A volleyball title.
The Pioneers beat the Titans 25-12, 25-19, 25-13, improving to 12-0 in the league with two matches to go.
Watauga secured the title with help from St. Stephens, which beat second-place Alexander Central 3-2 in Hickory. That left the Cougars and Hickory at 9-3 each and three games back with two to go.
Emma Clark had 15 kills and four blocks, Brooke Byrd added 12 kills and 12 digs and Rebekah Farthing posted 11 kills and 12 digs for Watauga.
The Northwestern 3A-4A regular season ends next week, when Watauga faces Freedom and West Caldwell.
Maiden 3, East Lincoln 0
Maiden won on the road, preventing the Mustangs for closing out a South Fork 2A title.
The Blue Devils prevailed 25-20, 25-18, 25-19 and improved to 10-2 in the conference and moved within a game of league-leading East Lincoln with two conference matches to go.
Had East Lincoln won, it would have clinched at least a share of the league title.
Kyle Morgan led Maiden with 18 kills and 14 digs, Abbey Smith added nine kills and three aces, Faith Herman posted 36 assists and Lauren Xayavong provided 12 digs and two aces for the Blue Devils.
The final week of the South Fork 2A schedule is just ahead, with Maiden at Newton-Conover on Tuesday and East Lincoln going to West Lincoln.
On Thursday, the Blue Devils face Lincolnton at Maiden and Newton-Conover visits East Lincoln.
The conference tournament begins on Oct. 16 at higher seeds, then moves to Maiden for the semifinals and finals.
Hickory 3, South Caldwell 0
Morgan Anderson had six aces and 19 assists to lead the Red Tornadoes to a home victory over the Spartans in a Northwestern 3A-4A match.
Payton Cross had eight kills and Allison Gambill and Julie Huggins added seven each for Hickory, tied for second place with Alexander Central at 9-3 in the league.
Mahayla Malbon and Katherine Diamonti provided seven digs each for HHS and Olivia Pisel provided 11 assists.
Hickory has a non-league match at Draughn on Monday at 6 p.m., goes to Alexander Central on Tuesday night to break the tie for second (at 6 p.m.), and faces St. Stephens on Thursday at 6 p.m. at Hickory.
South Caldwell plays St. Stephens on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in Hudson and is at Alexander Central on Thursday at 6 p.m.
St. Stephens 3, Alexander Central 2
The Indians won at home 25-18, 20-25, 25-14, 22-25, 15-7 to move within a game of second-place in the Northwestern 3A-4A and help Watauga secure a regular-season title.
St. Stephens, 8-4 in the league, is just behind Alexander Central and Hickory and has league matches left at South Caldwell on Tuesday and against Hickory, on the road, on Thursday.
JV FOOTBALL
St. Stephens 50, West Caldwell 6
At St. Stephens, two Indians ran for more than 100 yards in a Northwestern 3A-4A victory.
Tailback Zak McLauchlin ran 10 times for 122 yards and scored twice and fullback Raheem Craig added 111 yards on eight carries and a TD as St. Stephens improved to 5-1 overall and 3-0 in the league.
Alex Brown had seven carries for 58 yards and two TDs and Luke Johnson and Malik Hilton added rushing scores for the Indians.
Linebacker Hayden Kerley led the Indians’ defense with eight tackles and two assists and linebacker Matthew Hancock added six tackles and four assists.
Johnson and Omar Orozco recovered fumbles for St. Stephens and Charlie Woy, Johnson and Sean Guy had interceptions for the Indians.
St. Stephens plays at Watauga next Thursday night while West Caldwell is at home the same night against Hickory.
Alexander Central 28, Freedom 16
Alexander Central’s defense held visiting Freedom to 114 yards – 75 of that rushing on 22 carries – to win a Northwestern 3A-4A game and remain unbeaten (6-0, 3-0).
The Cougars pulled within 16-14 with about 90 seconds left in the first half when Easton Rhoney scored on a 10-yard run.
There was no scoring in the third quarter.
Alexander Central gained a 20-16 lead with 7:02 to play on a 2-yard rushing TD by Dayente Calhoun, who had 16 carries for a 76 yards. He added a 15-yard scoring run and a two-point conversion run about six minutes later.
Desmond Caldwell led Freedom (4-1, 1-2) with a game-high 80 yards rushing on 13 carries. He scored twice, on runs of 40 and 1 yard.
The Cougars had the ball for nearly 24 of the game’s 40 minutes.
JaiKwaun Tilley had six tackles to lead Alexander Central’s defense. Zach Wooten added five tackles and Ethan Robinette ( 2 ½ hits for lost yardage) and Ibrahim Boston had four each.
Noah English had a game-high 12 tackles for Watauga and Jayden Moore added nine.
The Cougars play at McDowell next Thursday night in a league game while Freedom will be at home against South Caldwell.
BOYS SOCCER
Bandys 4, Maiden 3
Three sophomores scored a goal each on Thursday night to lead Bandys past visiting Maiden in a South Fork 2A match.
Macauley Bulen, Garrett Rhodes and Seaver Hubbard each scored once and junior Jason Jimenez had the other goal for the Trojans (8-7-0, 3-5-0). Hubbard added an assist.
Maiden dropped to 6-6-1 overall and 4-4-0 in the conference.