ROCKINGHAM – The only team on the Richmond Senior High School volleyball team’s schedule that the Lady Raiders hadn’t faced at least once already this season was rival Scotland High School — but that all changed Monday as Richmond took care of business against its Sandhills Athletic Conference foe.
The Lady Raiders were back in action for the fifth time in eight days, and turned around to play Scotland just two days after capping off a four-match week and ending a three-match losing streak by beating Purnell Swett High School in straight sets Saturday.
Richmond bounced the Lady Fighting Scots in four sets, with set scores of 25-15, 26-24, 17-25 and 25-21. With the win, head coach Ashleigh Larsen’s team kept its postseason hopes alive, and will have to battle from here on out to make things happen.
“I think everybody thought we were going to beat them in three sets tonight,” Larsen smiled after the game. “Especially after the way the girls came out swinging in the first set. They did everything I asked them to do and we had minimal errors.”
The first set was the Lady Raiders’ smoothest set of the night, as they jumped out to a 7-3 lead in the match’s first 10 recorded points. Junior outside hitter Jadyn Johnson, who served well in Saturday’s win, picked up where she left off, as she served Richmond to a 6-0 run in the middle of the set to give the home team a 14-8 lead.
The Lady Raiders held a consistent lead of seven points for much of the opening set, as it picked up two aces, 10 kills and 16 digs. Senior outside hitter Savannah Lampley, who finished the night with a match-best 14 kills, collected four of them in the first set. The final three points, which gave Richmond a 10-point lead and its largest at any point during the match, came via a kill by Johnson and two by Lampley.
Larsen admitted that her team “didn’t carry the same momentum over into the second set” as it had in the first, as the second frame went to overtime. Richmond and Scotland would see a tied score on the board nine times, and neither team could get out to a big lead, as the largest lead for either team was just three points.
Sophomore middle hitter Georgia Grace Anderson helped Richmond maintain a small lead a couple of times during the set, as a tip and a kill by Anderson made it 8-6 in favor of the home team. A couple of rallies later, Anderson picked up two more kills, and with the help of kills by Johnson and Lampley, Richmond held a narrow 13-12 lead.
It wasn’t until the set was tied at 24 that a Scotland hitting error by Nakiya Locklear and a kill by Lampley ended the set, giving Richmond a healthy 2-0 advantage.
“I told the girls it was now or never, and I asked them where the team was from the first set,” Larsen noted of the second set victory. “It was like the same song and dance from other matches where we revert back and have to dig ourselves out of a hole.
“I’m glad we won tonight because Scotland had some quality hitters and their setter (Sarah Eury) was playing smart by tipping on us,” she added.
The only time the Lady Raiders were off their game was in the third set, as Scotland (6-7, 5-4 SAC) started with an 8-4 run that forced Larsen to call a timeout. The pause in action seemed to shift momentum, as Richmond rallied for a 6-2 run to knot the set a 10 points. But a couple of small runs by Scotland, including a 4-0 rally late, gave the Lady Scots their only set of the night.
The final set was a series of big runs by both teams, as a block by senior middle hitter Savannah Chappell, one of her team-high four during the match, started a 7-2 Lady Raider charge to open things up. Scotland made things interesting with a 6-2 push moments later, as Richmond’s lead was cut to two points, 11-9.
One thing Larsen has said she’d like to see her team work on more effectively during matches is to dig itself out of holes, and her players did just that in the fourth set. A Johnson tip and another Lampley kill widened the lead following the Scotland push, and Lampley made three athletic kill attempts on a sequence of sets by junior teammate Carley Lambeth before smashing the ball home to give Richmond a 15-12 lead.
A 4-0 run by Larsen’s squad gave her team a 19-13 advantage, but Mallarie Snow’s Lady Fighting Scots rallied again with a 6-2 run to pull within two points. The match would end when Anderson tipped a ball into no-man’s land, and was followed by Lampley’s final kill and a Scotland hitting error.
As a team, Richmond tallied 10 aces, 33 kills, 63 digs and seven blocks. Aside from Lampley’s 14 kills, Anderson was second with eight, followed by five from Johnson and four from junior right side hitter Allexis Swiney. Lambeth led the way with three aces, and served up 32 assists in the win.
On defense, junior libero Layne Maultsby, who entered the night in third place in the SAC in digs with 169, added 20 more to her season total, while also serving two aces. Johnson dug the ball 16 times, while Lampley was the only other Lady Raider to hit double digits with 10.
“I’m proud of the girls for fighting their way through the second and fourth sets,” Larsen concluded. “Overall the girls played really well tonight against a good team.”
Larsen and company won’t get a night off, as they’ll head to last-place Hoke County High School (0-13, 0-8 SAC) Tuesday. The match is scheduled to start at 6 p.m.
