SOUTHERN PINES – Wednesday’s meeting between the Lady Raider varsity volleyball team and Pinecrest High School in the opening round of the Sandhills Athletic Conference tournament was just as aggressive and hard-hitting as the previous two matches during the regular season.
Unfortunately for No. 3 Richmond, its run in the conference playoffs came to a quick end, as the Lady Raiders lost in four sets, 3-1, to the No. 2 Lady Patriots. Set scores were 21-25, 25-17, 13-25 and 23-25. It was the third time this season that the Lady Raiders fell to Pinecrest, all of which went at least four sets (the two regular season matches went to five sets). The loss also ended the Lady Raiders’ six-match winning streak.
Last season, Richmond won the SAC tournament to improve to 25-0, and Wednesday’s loss marked the earliest conference tournament exit for the green and gold since losing to Pinecrest in the second round of the 2015 tournament.
In what became a battle in the defensive trenches, the Lady Raiders used timely defense and a variety of runs to keep the match close. Several players, including senior Savannah Lampley, and juniors Jadyn Johnson, Carley Lambeth, Layne Maultsby and Allexis Swiney hit the deck hard to make diving volley-saving digs to keep the attack chances alive.
The first set saw both teams get out to a decent start, but it was a 9-0 Lady Patriot run that made the difference. Pinecrest senior Carley Modlin went on a serving tear during the run, collecting five aces during the stretch to give Pinecrest a 14-5 lead.
Both teams would trade points in the middle of the set before head coach Ashleigh Larsen’s team would make a late push. Trailing 23-14, Larsen called a timeout, and out of the break, Richmond surged within three points, 24-21, thanks to a 7-1 run. A Johnson tip at the net, two kills by sophomore Georgia Grace Anderson and four Pinecrest errors cut the deficit.
Pinecrest head coach Scott Shepherd called a timeout needing only one more point to end the set, and got it on the next volley when the Lady Raiders committed a setting violation.
Larsen’s team’s best frame of the night was the second, a 25-17 winner, as both the offense and defense went all out to take the victory. Lambeth started the set at the serving line with a 4-0 run that included an ace. Several Pinecrest hitting errors and kills by Swiney and Johnson quickly gave Richmond a 12-5 lead, forcing Shepherd to call another timeout.
From that point on, Richmond outscored Pinecrest by just two points the rest of the set, but the fast start was enough to take the second set. An impressive tic-tac-toe sequence that started with an off-balanced dig by Maultsby that went to Lambeth set up a Lampley kill that gave Richmond a 20-13 lead.
That play was the first of three in a row that the Lady Raiders exhibited some of their most athletic plays of the night. On the next volley, Johnson powered home a kill on a heads up play off of a blocked shot on teammate Savannah Chappell. Johnson struck again just moments later, as she laid out to pop a ball up on a diving save, before scrambling back up to collect another kill on a Lambeth dish, giving Richmond a nine-point advantage, 22-13.
The set would come to an end thanks to a clean block by Swiney at the net and another Johnson kill, this one a cross-court drive that smacked off the hands of an unexpecting Madison Wheeler in the right corner.
After tying the match at one set apiece, Larsen’s squad struggled out of the gate in the third and was never able to regain its footing. A 7-2 opening by Pinecrest was stopped by a Johnson kill, but that lead quickly jumped to 14-6, giving way to a Larsen timeout.
Things didn’t go in Richmond’s favor, as the deficit grew to a match-high 11 points, 22-11. Wheeler used a kill and a tip to secure the 12-point set win after a second Richmond timeout.
In the final set of the night, Lambeth began at the serving line and led the Lady Raiders out to a quick 6-0 lead, and three Pinecrest errors made it a 9-1 advantage for the visiting team. Shepherd called a timeout, and out of the break, Johnson stuffed another kill down to the hardwood, but that would be the last major strike for a while for the Lady Raiders.
An ace by Lady Patriot Liz Mann sparked a 13-3 Pinecrest run that would eventually give the home team a one-point lead, 14-13. Sophomore Lexi Allen joined the mix for the Lady Patriots, adding a couple of kills in the middle of the set to allow Pinecrest to take a 20-14 lead.
Larsen called another timeout, and Lampley responded with a two-handed block at the net to cut the deficit to two. But Richmond couldn’t recover, and saw its SAC championship hopes come to an end on a tip by Allen.
The good news for Larsen and company is that their season isn’t over yet, as they’ll wait for the weekend to find out where they fall in the NCHSAA 4A state playoffs. ROSports will report the date, location and first-round opponent when information becomes available.
Pinecrest will travel to No. 1 Jack Britt High School Thursday for the SAC tournament championship.
