CARY Charlotte Latin sophomore Delaney Dalton set a lofty goal for her birthday present – one she shared with teammates encircled for high fives Saturday afternoon at Cary Academy.

Dalton handed out 45 assists for the top-seeded Hawks, who needed five games to stop No. 2 seed Charlotte Country Day – 25-20, 17-25, 23-25, 25-21, 15-10 – en route to a fifth straight N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association (NCISAA) 3A volleyball title.

Latin (25-2) swept three matches from the Buccaneers, but trailed 7-3 entering a final set timeout. Latin reeled off six of the next seven points, including three kills by Liza Price.

Charlotte Country Day's Jeanay Butler tied the score at 10, but the Hawks' Blair Carson answered with two kills among the next four points. Kelly Smith's service ace closed the match.

“I don't have any words right now,” Latin coach Suzie Pignetti said. “I'm just so pleased with the poise. They just had to work hard and scratch and claw and fight and never give up.”

Price (29 kills, 22 digs) made up for Pignetti's speechlessness by admonishing her teammates to stop feeling sorry for themselves after an error-plagued split of the first two games.

“If (we) made a point, the team made a point. If (we) made a mistake, the team made a mistake,” Price said afterward. “I couldn't come out winning on this team and everybody else come out losing. Volleyball doesn't work that way.”

Another Butler kill earned Country Day (22-6) a 21-16 third game lead, which became a 23-all tie after Price had five kills among the next nine points. The Buccaneers survived for a 2-1 advantage, and tied the fourth-game score at 18 on a kill by Meredith Stuart. Price responded, again, and the Hawks led the remainder game.

“They left it all out on the court,” Country Day coach Carrie Christian said of her team. “They have nothing to be upset about.”

Carson (11 kills, 26 digs) and teammate McCallie Jones (12 kills, 19 digs) also finished with double-doubles.

The Hawks became the second NCISAA 3A program to claim five consecutive championships, along with Raleigh Cardinal Gibbons (six titles from 1998-2003), whose coach, Jim Freeman, attended Saturday's final.