The Lexington Wildcats continued their red-hot start to the season, steamrolling their way through the Aiken Invitational and improving their overall record to 12-1.

The Wildcats won all five games they played without dropping a single set.
In the first match against May River, Lexington won both sets with relative ease, 25-18 and 25-13. They faced Oceanside Collegiate in the second round and completely dominated in the first set 25-11 before winning the second in a nail-biter 27-25.

Lexington advanced to face Fox Creek in the next round and swept the sets 25-12 and 25-18. The win propelled them to the semi-final where they faced Cardinal Newman. Cardinal Newman hung with Lexington in the first set before ultimately falling 25-23. Lexington took care of business in the final frame and won 25-19 to advance to the final.

The championship game against Ashley Ridge posed the toughest challenge of the day for the Wildcats with both sets being competitive. However, Ashley Ridge still couldn’t steal a set as Lexington won both 25-20 and 25-21 to win the Aiken Invitational.

Lexington has now won eight straight games since losing to River Bluff in the North-South Invitational in Rock Hill earlier this month. That loss to River Bluff was also the last time they lost a set, both of which were by two points each.
Head coach Eric Shick is excited about the tournament win but knows there’s improvements needed to get them to where he wants them to be by the time playoffs roll around.

“It was a good tournament for us,” Shick said. “We played well enough to win but we also saw some areas that we needed to work on to be ready for the best teams in the state. Our goal is constant improvement to be ready for the playoffs.”

He also alluded to the big week they have ahead against even stronger competition.

“We have another week of tough teams this week. Aug. 29 will be a test against Greenbrier and South Aiken. They have a very strong team this year,” Shick added. “We have already played them at our scrimmage but it’s for real this time and we hope to be playing at our best.”

South Aiken is currently undefeated with wins against 5A contenders in River Bluff and Dorman.

So far this year, the balanced Wildcats have been led by players like Kendall Vinson, Sara Sykes, Sydney Fischer, Kaitlyn Cannon and Emily DeRienzo.

Vinson is the team’s leader in kills with 57 on the year and posting an impressive 3.2 kills per set. Sykes is leading the team in digs (80), receptions (63) and serving aces (12). Fischer leads the team with an astounding 138 assists, and Cannon is the team leader in blocks with 14. DeRienzo is third in blocks with ten and first in hitting percentage so far.