ROCKINGHAM — Almost two months after the middle school fall sports season came to an abrupt stop, the Hamlet and Rockingham volleyball teams resumed play on Wednesday.
The two Richmond County rivals met for the first time since playing in the 2019 Southeastern Middle School Athletic Conference championship, which saw the Lady Red Rams win.
Wednesday’s outcome went the other way, as the Lady Rockets and head coach Teresa Mason took both ends of a double-header to improve to 6-0 on the year. Hamlet and head coach Alex Gardner fell to 3-3 on the season.
Match one went to three sets, with Hamlet squeezing out a 27-25 win in the opening frame. Rockingham battled back to win sets two and three by scores of 25-17 and 20-18.
Hamlet took a 12-10 lead in the first set and caused Rockingham to call a timeout. The teams battled back and forth and each held a four-point advantage at some point. With the Lady Red Rams up 22-20, Mason called another break.
Rockingham appeared to have won the set, but after a long delay, it was determined that the Lady Rockets served out of order. That eventually led to Hamlet winning the next two points for the 27-25 win.
In the second set of the first match, Rockingham jumped out to a 9-2 lead. The Lady Rockets extended that margin to their largest lead, 22-13. Hamlet made a run with three straight points to close the deficit to six points, but a 3-1 run by Rockingham sealed the deal.
Knotted at one set apiece, Rockingham took an early 7-1 lead in the third. Hamlet rallied to tie it at nine points, and that’s when the two squads went point-for-point. Only needing 15 points for the win, the teams tied seven more times before Rockingham ended on a 2-0 spurt.
The afternoon’s second match was also tightly contested, but Rockingham won in straight sets by scores of 25-22 and 25-21.
Leading the Lady Rockets was J’Nasia Neal with 31 points on the afternoon, followed by Tess Bryant’s 23 points and Kamora Watkins’ 22 points.
Also reaching double digits for Rockingham were Sharonda Henderson (15 points), Madisen Jackson (14 points) and Gracie Scott (13 points). Melissa Canas rounded out the scoring with seven points.
For Hamlet, Orena Drake had 10 aces, three kills and two digs, while Jakayla Steele added an ace, two kills and six digs on defense.
Kinsie Lyerly helped with three aces and two digs, and Hayden Robinson notched four serving aces and three digs. Kalynn McCormick’s line consisted of five aces and two digs, Julia Standridge added two perfect serves and a dig and Keelan Fisher tallied one dig.
No. 1 Rockingham and No. 2 Hamlet will play in the 2020-21 conference championship match on Friday. Playing at Rock Middle, the match will start at 4 p.m.
Deon Cranford, Alex Gardner, Teresa Mason and Kyle Pillar contributed to this article.
