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This must be what a spike to the face feels like.

Five Guilford County volleyball teams — Grimsley, Page, Ragsdale, Northwest Guilford, Southern Guilford — were still alive in the NCHSAA playoffs for Tuesday's second round. All five had the firepower to make it much farther, as did Rockingham County and McMichael from around the corner.

So what happened? All seven lost. Four of them came by sweep. Bump, set, yikes.

Northwest's defeat was among the most surprising, given that the Piedmont Triad 4-A champion Vikings came in with a 30-4 record, had a wealth of senior talent and are perennially one of the state's last teams standing. The Vikings fell in five sets to Charlotte Ardrey Kell.

Southern Guilford had won all 25 of its matches this season and only once needed more than four sets to do it. But that's all it took for them to fall to Southern Vance, a three seed that had lost three of its last six and entered with a 17-11 record.

It highlights the multitude of good fortune it takes to win a title, no matter how much talent is on board, and the damage one obstacle can cause. Grimsley had been one of the biggest surprises of the season, going from afterthought to Metro 4-A title in head coach Tiana Robinson's first season. The Whirlies dispatched Dudley in straight sets in Saturday's first round, but the next morning, Whirlies ace hitter Manon Murray woke up with a respiratory illness. She told Robinson she could play despite missing all practices, but "you could just see it in her face," Robinson said. "I had to take her out after a game and a half. She still played awesome, but it would have been different with her."

NORTHERN GOLF RISING: Making cuts was easy for Chris Jones when he took over Northern Guilford's fledgling girls golf program three years ago.

"I only had one girl the first week of practice," Jones said. "I was lucky to have a team."

They grow up so fast. Despite boasting just one senior, the Nighthawks took seventh place in the state at last week's NCHSAA 1-A/2-A/3-A championships behind a 22nd-place finish from Taylor Penzer, 43rd place from Tailar Murphy and 37th place from sophomore Elizabeth Ewing, who qualified as an individual last year.

"I know that experience really helped her," Jones said. "They're at that age now where they're growing, hitting it a little bit farther, they have a little more experience on certain shots. Longer par-3s and 5s like they see in state competition, they've seen it before. It's not a big culture shock for them."

Morgan Hoyle is the only senior departing the Nighthawks, who cut their team scoring average from 159 to 134.5 this season.

"There's still six or seven shots out there for them," Jones said. "We had a really good year. It's nice to see the program grow."

TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS: Six members of Grimsley's Metro 4-A champion girls tennis team will compete in the NCHSAA state championships this weekend.

Carli Tuscano and Nikki Curnes are in the singles bracket, while the teams of Majdou Lavoie/Lauren Tuscano and Roxanne Henshall/Allison Schoonhagen will play doubles.

Southeast Guilford's doubles team of Kayleigh Bullard and Logan Hurley also qualified for the 4-A tournament, which will take place at Millbrook Exchange Park in Raleigh.

Bishop McGuinness' Elizabeth Davis and Emily Ciriano will compete in 1-A doubles at Cary Tennis Center, and Massey DeMoss of McMichael will play in 3-A singles at the Burlington Parks and Recreation Tennis Center.

Contact Tom Keller at 373-7034 or tom.keller@news-record.com