Eastern Randolph teammates Cora Sparrow, left, and Logann Beaver make a play at the net against Western Alamance. Teammate Kenly Whitaker, far left, looks on. (Scott Pelkey/Randolph Record)
Several volleyball teams rack up multiple wins
Strong starts to the season came in various forms for Randolph County teams as the fall competitions began last week.
Here’s a glance at some of the highlights:
Boys’ soccer
Asheboro, coming off the best season in program history, won its opener in the new season by a 5-1 count against Newton Foard. The Blue Comets had five different goal scorers – Daniel Guttierez, Henry Martinez Cruz, Ozmar Martinez, Alan Alcantara and Arath Jiemes.
The Blue Comets also won a non-league game vs. visiting Randleman with Varona Bustamante scoring two goals and Alcantara, Martinez and Tyler Smith also tallying goals.
Asheboro was the only Mid-Piedmont Conference team without a loss in the first week of the season. All games involving teams in the league were non-conference matchups.
** Trinity won twice, topping East Davidson 1-0 and Thomasville 4-0. Moises Venture had the only goal in the first game and two goals in the second game. Sami Abdul also had two goals vs. Thomasville.
Volleyball
Randleman, Trinity and Wheatmore all went 2-0 during the week.
Randleman won at home against a pair of Mid-Piedmont Conference teams by defeating Oak Grove in four sets before a sweep of Asheboro.
Haley Hinshaw with 18 kills and 18 digs vs. Oak Grove and Camden Scott with 187 kills and nine digs in the Asheboro match were among the highlights for the Tigers.
Trinity topped visiting Thomasville in three sets before needing four sets to defeat host Lexington.
** Uwharrie Charter Academy began 2-0 by winning at Union Academy and a home sweep of Ledford before a loss to Northern Guilford.
** Southwestern Randolph opted for a challenging opening week, going 3-2 in action that included neutral-court action. The results included a loss at Watauga and to Carrboro while there were victories against Greensboro Grimsley, Orange and East Chapel Hill. None of the matches lasted five sets.
** Asheboro lost its debut under first-year coach Kelly Smith in a five-set home decision to Wheatmore, which won 20-25, 25-21, 23-25, 25-19, 15-9. Sion Murrain recorded 19 kills and seven digs for Asheboro.
That result pushed Wheatmore to 2-0 because the Warriors earlier won at home in a sweep of East Davidson.
** Eastern Randolph also won two matches after a loss in its season opener. The Wildcats lost in four sets to visiting Western Alamance before sweeping host Eastern Alamance. Addie Flinchum had 11 kills, Kenly Whitaker provided 27 assists, Logan Beaver had 15 digs and Miriana Corea made eight blocks in the first victory of the season. Then came a sweep of visiting South Davidson.
** Providence Grove won its lone match of the week by topping East Davidson in three sets behind Mailey Way’s 22 digs and Riley Mazzarone ‘s 30 assists.
Girls’ tennis
Southwestern Randolph began with a pair of victories – 5-2 vs. Oak Grove and 8-1 vs. South Davidson.
Postponements
The vicious storm that blew through the region on Tuesday of last week played havoc with the schedule, including for multiple days in some cases.
Providence Grove had volleyball and boys’ soccer competitions called off at Southern Guilford because of lingering power outages.
Cross country
At Thomasville. Zach Hazelwood of Wheatmore won East Davidson’s Bob Schilly Invitational on Saturday with a time of 16 minutes. 21.71 seconds.
Hazelwood secured nearly 32-second advantage on runner-up Cole Johnson of High Point Christian. There were 71 runners in the race.
The Warriors placed last among eight teams in the boys’ team standings. South Davidson was the winning team.
The girls’ winner was Jillian Parks of Central Davidson in 20:01.73. East Davidson won the team title, while Wheatmore was fifth among six teams.
