CARY - The Cary volleyball team enters the gym wearing warmups that subtly tell you the Imps’ style of play with words printed on the back: “Short but Sweet.”

But Green HopeÂ’s team lets you know its style with an obvious and imposing presence: 6-foot-4 outside hitter/setter Christina Vucich, a junior who recently committed to Duke as a setter.

“She’s got an all-around game,” said Karl Redelfs, Green Hope’s first-year coach. “She’s a very good setter and she has very good hands. She plays defense well, too, but we’re still working on that a little.”

VucichÂ’s offense was too much for Cary as she finished with 16 kills to lead the Falcons to a 25-12, 17-25, 25-11, 25-17 win in a Tri-Nine Conference match Tuesday at the ImpsÂ’ newly-named Charlie Adams Gymnasium.

With the win, Green Hope improved to 4-0 in the Tri-Nine and 5-1 overall, while Cary dropped to 2-2 and 3-2. Both teams needed a win to keep pace with Tri-Nine defending champion Apex, which plays Green Hope Sept. 9 at the FalconsÂ’ gym.

“We're trying to improve as much as we can,” Vucich said. “We're using every match to get better so we can hopefully give [Apex] a good match.”

After Green Hope and Cary split the first two games, Vucich took over the third game when junior setter Kaitlin Quinn consistently got her the ball at the net.

“Kaitlin and Christina are really good friends, and they communicate well,” Redelfs said. “After we lost the second game, I think they said, ‘Hey, that’s not going to happen in another game.’ So they kept feeding Christina.”

Cary was leading game three by a 4-3 score when Green Hope ran off eight unanswered points and 14 of the next 15 to take the pivotal game. Vucich, a lefty, accounted for seven of the eight unanswered points for a 10-2 lead with six kills and a combined block with sophomore Hannah Westervelt.

“We tried to come out in the third game with an aggressive mind-set and not let up,” Vucich said. “I think we got too comfortable in the second game, and we knew we had to keep the energy up.”

Although CaryÂ’s roster lacks a 6-footer, veteran Imps coach Philip Goodloe says his team can challenge its Tri-Nine rivals better than the Imps showed against Green Hope.

“We’re small, but it was more our defense that let us down,” Goodloe said. “We can play better, and the girls know it. They came off the court and said, ‘We were horrible.’ Sometimes you can get too excited for a match, and I think that’s what happened to us.”