RICHMOND COUNTY — With the Southeastern Middle School Athletic Conference volleyball regular season ending this week, both the Ellerbe and Rockingham middle school squads ended on a high note.
On Tuesday, Hamlet Middle School’s volleyball team completed a perfect 12-0 season and earned the No. 1 seed in the upcoming playoffs. The Lady Rockets only lost two matches this year, both to Hamlet, and clinched the No. 2 berth behind their in-county rival.
With Ellerbe and head coach Kristin Svitak, the Lady Wildcats were looking to earn their first match win of the season before it came to an end, and they did just that against Anson Orange.
Lady Rockets earn No. 2 seed in sweep of Cordova
Hitting the court Monday to try and preserve its spot as the No. 2 team in the SEMSAC standings was Rockingham Middle School, and the Lady Rockets came away with a sweep of Cordova Middle School to hold its position.
Set scores against the Lady Cavaliers were 25-11 and 25-13 in the first match of the doubleheader, and 25-12 and 25-21 in the final match. Rockingham improved its overall record to 10-2, just two games out of first behind the Lady Red Rams.
Eighth grader Allie Rodgers was Rockingham’s leading scorer against Cordova, tallying 23 total points between the two matches. Also hitting the 20-point mark was seventh grader Jamyia Lindsey, who finished with 20 points.
Adding double digits in points were Zoey Herberg (11 points) and Carolina Gonzalez (10 points), as both players had their best respective outings of the season. Makailah Jackson and JNasia Neal both contributed eight points, while Sharonda Henderson added seven. Rounding out the Lady Rockets’ scoring was Kiersten Davis with two points.
No. 2 Rockingham will prepare for its first-round home playoff match against Carver Middle School on Monday at 4 p.m. No stats were provided for Cordova.
Lady Wildcats earn first win in season finale against Anson Orange
Third-year head coach Kristin Svitak knew it was only a matter of time before her Lady Wildcats put it together to earn their first win of the season. Ellerbe hosted Anson Orange on Monday and earned a split in the season-ending doubleheader against the Lady Bearcats.
Both matches would go to three sets, as Ellerbe won the first one 2-1. Set scores were 25-20, 13-25 and 15-9. The second match almost saw the Lady Wildcats earn the sweep, but they fell 1-2 behind set scores of 20-25, 25-23 and 8-15.
Zoey Robson and Jasmine Martinez both led the team with 11 aces from the serving line between the two games. Melissa Morales and Ivey Craven each recorded two kills. The Lady Wildcats’ volleyball season came to an end with a 1-13 overall record.
ROSports will continue its coverage of the middle school volleyball playoffs as Hamlet and Rockingham contend for a conference title beginning next week.
