History-setting North Gaston at home for volleyball second round

Call it the luck of the draw. Bad luck, that is.

In the 3A West’s only matchup of two No. 1 seeds, North Gaston, the top seed from the Big South 3A Conference, will face Northwestern No. 1 Hickory Tuesday in the second round of the volleyball state playoffs.

But North Gaston will take it. After all, it’s not every season the Wildcats find themselves in the second round of the playoffs.

In fact, Saturday’s 3-0 win over R-S Central very well could have been the school’s first volleyball playoff win in school history. Volleyball records are hard to come by, but it’s certain that North Gaston hasn’t won a volleyball playoff game at least since 1980.

Senior setter Carolyn Houser, junior outside hitter Caitlin Rubow and senior libero Carter Thomas have been among the leaders for North Gaston (16-5), which won the Big South title for the second straight year.

Now, after blazing through the first round, the Wildcats face what appears to be a very tough Hickory team that comes in with a 20-2 record.

“They have a formidable front row, but we have a formidable defense,” North Gaston coach Janice James said. “We’ll run our game and play it the way we have all year.”

Big South has seeding priority over the Northwestern, giving North Gaston home-court advantage Tuesday. The match begins at 6. The winner will face Patton (13-5) or Franklin (19-3) in the third round.

“We’re coming out like we come out for every game, and that’s to play the best volleyball we know how to play,” James said.

Another team out of the Big South, Kings Mountain (16-6), also advanced to the second round, where it travel to play Enka (12-8). In the 2A playoffs, East Lincoln (23-2) will visit Piedmont (23-1).

Tuesday'sarea volleyball second-round playoff pairings

Class 3A

Hickory (20-2) at North Gaston (16-5)

Kings Mountain (16-6) at Enka (12-8)

Class 2A

East Lincoln (23-2) at Piedmont (23-1)