FAIRMONT — Each time that it came Kaylee Lancaster’s turn to serve Wednesday, it stayed that way for a while.

The Lumberton senior spearheaded runs, particularly in the first two sets, that helped lead the Pirates to a 3-0 sweep at Fairmont.

“We had an injured player, but we were able to get back together, do a new rotation and just play as a team,” Lancaster said. “I think that’s really what helped us tonight.”

Lancaster moved from libero, her typical position, to an outside hitter position due to injuries on the Pirates’ roster. She had six aces to help spark the big runs for Lumberton (4-2), while adding five kills and five assists.

“I usually play libero, but I know I have a team to back me up so I just went out there and did what I was supposed to do, knowing that if I mess up, my team will be right behind me,” Lancaster said.

Being the only senior on an otherwise-young team gives Lancaster a natural leadership role, one which she’s taken head on.

“The only senior on our team, and I put a lot of responsibility on her,” Lumberton coach Bryan Hales said. “I told her, you’re the senior, you should be out here leading this team. There’s three freshmen starting right now. … She’s the only senior, she’s got to bring it to the table. We depend on her for defense and leadership.”

“As the only senior, I feel like it’s a really big role,” Lancaster said. “We’ve got a lot of freshmen on the team and I feel like they look up to me as a senior, so I just try to encourage everybody and make sure everyone’s OK even when we mess up.”

The first set was tied 6-6 when Lancaster dropped back to serve for the first time in the match; Lumberton scored the next 15 points to take a 21-6 lead, and won the set 25-11.

“(Lancaster) did a great serve, I have to give that to her, good floater,” Fairmont coach Kaitlyn Hunt said. “We received (the serves); it was our hitters was off tonight. We didn’t get many swings and as many attacks as we should. That’s the only adjustment we need to make, but you can’t take that credit (away), she did a great job serving.”

Lumberton led the second set 12-9 before another run during Lancaster’s serve, a 13-0 stretch that only ended when the Pirates won the set 25-9.

“I just went back there and took my time,” Lancaster said. “Last night was a hard loss, so I guess we wanted to come out here and say we’re still in it. That’s usually what we mess up on is our serves, so I just wanted to take my time and make sure I got it over and that every point was worth it.”

Lumberton continued the momentum with a 6-0 run to start the third set during Maddie Carnahan’s serve, and expanded the lead to 17-6, including another run during a Lancaster serve with a 4-0 spurt. The Pirates cruised from there to win 25-12 and clinch the match.

“It was good. We’ve got to keep the intensity up,” Hales said. “We’ve got to get ready, we’ve got two big games next week … we start conference play. We’ve got to get level up tomorrow (in practice).”

Giselle Leach had 10 kills and Ava Hanna had nine for the Pirates. Chloe Campbell had 16 assists, while Carnahan had 11 aces.

Lumberton begins conference play Tuesday at home against Cape Fear.

Fairmont (0-3) plays next on Sept. 4 at Whiteville.