FAYETTEVILLE — If there’s been anything Richmond Senior High School assistant volleyball coach Melissa Dennis hasn’t doubted about the Lady Raiders this season, it’s been their grit and ability to respond under pressure.
Following a tough road loss on Tuesday, the Lady Raiders laced up their sneakers and bounced back to earn a pivotal Sandhills Athletic Conference victory on the road against Jack Britt High School. Although it would go to five sets, Richmond would win the match 3-2 over the Lady Buccaneers.
A match that would see Richmond (13-3, 6-3 SAC) win all three odd-numbered sets, and mount a rally in the fifth frame, set scores were 25-19, 23-25, 25-22, 22-25 and 15-13. With the win, Richmond stayed locked in third place, and put a game between itself and fourth-place Jack Britt (7-12, 5-4 SAC).
“We wanted it so bad tonight and you could really tell just by looking at the girls’ faces,” Dennis commented after the win. “After a loss, we’re always ready to get back in the win column, but tonight the girls had a different attitude about them.
“Tonight was really a game, more so than others, that saw the momentum shift and become an important factor,” she continued. “In the sets we won, we had a ton of momentum, but then we let it go, but the girls battled back and earned a nice win.”
The first set saw Richmond clinch its largest win of the night, a six-point spread, and Dennis credited that to her team’s “high level of energy and focus”. The Lady Raider offense would tally 10 kills in the opening set, seeing junior middle hitter Jakerra Covington crush home a team-best four kills in the stanza.
Fellow junior middle hitter Georgia Grace Anderson added two kills, and senior liberro Layne Maulstby, who’s known more for her role on defense, jumped up and recorded a kill in the set. Richmond also added three aces in the set, getting one each from Maultsby, and senior outside hitters Jadyn Johnson and Madison Jordan.
Defensively, Maultsby led the team with 23 digs on the night, using her hands to set up passes from Jack Britt’s “hard hitters at the net.” She had six in the first and fourth games, a match-high for her. Senior setter Carley Lambeth and junior defensive specialist Emy Cooley each added four digs to earn the set win.
“Layne had an outstanding game tonight and it was one of her best performances of the season,” Dennis commented. “Any time (Jack Britt’s) hitters hit the ball, Layne seemed to be everywhere on the floor.
“She did a really good job of being in the right spot at the right time,” she added. “And Layne was able to make the right adjustments to get passes up to her teammates. I was also impressed by her pursuits to the ball.”
The final four sets would see the winning team win by no more than three points, with two of them ending in two-point deficits. After falling in the second game, Richmond bounced back with an intense three-point win in the third.
The Lady Raiders only had six kills in the third, three coming from Anderson, and two more from Covington. Junior right side hitter Taylor Chappell added the other kill. Helping Richmond were four more aces, seeing Maultsby lead the charge with three of them.
Jordan had a team-high five digs in the third, while Lambeth chipped in four more. From the assist column, a night after surpassing 1,000 career assists, Lambeth pushed out 36 more.
In the winner-take-all fifth set played to 15 points, the Lady Buccaneers jumped out to an 11-9 lead. But the Lady Raiders dug in a rallied on a 6-2 run to earn the crucial conference victory. Down the stretch, Richmond “capitalized on some errors” made by the Lady Bucs, and used a timeout in their favor to shift the momentum one last time.
“Jack Britt had a lot of hitters who could move the ball around, and we adjusted well with being in the right spots on the floor,” Dennis said. “All of our hitters did an awesome job moving around their blockers to find the holes.
“Tonight’s win was huge not just for a spot in the standings, but in helping us keep our focus,” she closed. “We play them again (Thursday), so we need to stay hungry.”
Anderson and Johnson would both finish with double-digit kills, tallying 16 and 10, respectively. Johnson notched five of her’s in the fourth set, and it was a season-high for Anderson. Covington had eight kills in the win.
Fifteen total aces were served on the night, including a team-high six in the second set. Lambeth had five, Maultbsy had four, Johnson had three, Jordan added two and Anderson capped it with one.
On defense, Richmond recorded 81 total digs, also a season-high. Adding to Maultsby’s 23 were 18 from Lambeth, 15 more from Cooley, 12 from Jordan and seven more from Johnson. Covington led the team with five blocks at the net.
Richmond will look to double-down Thursday when the Lady Buccaneers visit Rockingham. The opening serve is set for 6 p.m.
