By Mac Heffner
The Mount Airy Newsmheffner@mtairynews.com

TOAST -- Starmount volleyball coach Jon Symons admits he isn't that fond of playing matches at North Surry, but his Rams certainly were up for the challenge Tuesday night.

Starmount moved back into a tie for first place in the league standings with a three-game sweep of the homestanding Greyhounds, 25-22, 25-18 and 25-15. The Rams improved to 8-4 overall and 5-1 in the MVAC. North Surry dropped to 10-3 and 5-1.

"This is a place I'm not fond of playing in, there's just something about it," Symons said after the match. "We were able to dig down and get that first-game win and we built momentum from there. We needed this one."

In Game 2, North Surry opened with a 7-1 lead, forcing Symons to take a timeout. The Rams regrouped and tied the match at 16, before pulling away for a 25-18 win to take a 2-0 lead.

Starmount took control of the final game early and closed out the victory 25-14.

North coach Shane Slate said his team played well in the first two games, but weren't able to respond to big scoring runs keyed by the Rams' senior leaders Jana Matthews, Meme Brown and Jordan Raye.

"They made nice plays, swinging at the ball and serving to go along with some poor ballhandling errors that led to their runs," Slate said. "We never could respond to them. The little things we've talked about this season were where we made too many mistakes against them. If you do that against a team that has that kind of caliber pieces to the puzzle then you are going to be in trouble and we were.

"We've got physical talent and volleyball skills, but when things aren't going our way we don't have anybody that has that grit that will respond and pull us through tough times."

Slate said the Greyhounds needed to win the first game to keep the pressure on Starmount.

"I don't think confidence was a problem for us because we started the first two well, but it would have helped keep the pressure on them as much as it would have helped us stay in the groove," Slate said.

Courtney Campbell led North with a team-high 12 kills and seven digs while setter Kara Hodges finished with 22 assists. Sara Parker had 11 digs for the Greyhounds, and was 13 of 13 on service attempts with an ace.

Symons said the Rams did a good job of limiting Campbell's scoring chances,

"We worked hard on our serving this past week and we were finally able to get them out of their system," Symons said. "If you allow them to stay in their system, everybody knows where the ball is going and (Campbell) pounds it.

"We know it's going there so we have to find a way to get them out of the system. That starts with our serving. For the most part, we served pretty well tonight. There were a couple of times where we slipped out of that and floated some balls. When you do that against a team that works on passing a lot like Shane does, they are going to make passes to (Campbell) and she is going to see the target and crush it.

"For us to get them out of that system was a big result for us. This was a big win for us."

The Rams take on West Davidson today in non-conference action. The Dragons beat Starmount in a marathon five-game match earlier this season. North Surry hosts Ashe County Thursday in another key MVAC match.