LUMBERTON — It wasn’t the end to the week the Richmond Senior High School volleyball team was looking for as the Lady Raiders traveled to Sandhills Athletic Conference opponent Lumberton High School on Thursday.
In what proved to be a back-and-forth affair with numerous momentum shifts that went five games, the Lady Raiders dropped the conference match 3-2 to the Lady Pirates. Entering the night, Richmond was in third place and had a one-game lead over Jack Britt High School, but now sits tied with the Lady Buccaneers following the season series split with Lumberton.
The Lady Raiders (15-5, 7-5 SAC) would battle back two times, winning the second (25-23) and fourth (25-15) sets to force a winner-take-all fifth frame. With the fifth set close up until the match point, Richmond would come up just short 13-15.
Lumberton (12-6, 6-6 SAC) won the first and third sets by final scores of 25-23 and 25-21.
Leading the way offensively for Richmond was junior middle hitter Georgia Grace Anderson, who tallied 16 kills across the five sets. Senior outside hitter Madison Jordan also had a strong night at the net, collecting a season-high 10 kills.
Just shy of double digits was fellow senior outside hitter Jadyn Johnson, who ended the match with nine spikes, and junior middle hitter Jakerra Covington had six.
From the serving line, one of Richmond’s usual strong points, the Lady Raiders only managed to collect five aces. Two came from senior libero Layne Maultsby and one each from Anderson, Johnson and senior setter Carley Lambeth.
Lambeth was responsible for setting up 45 assists, while junior right side hitter Taylor Chappell had three and Jordan added one.
Richmond’s back row had to fend off a tough Lumberton front line, seeing itself muster 52 digs. Johnson had a season-high 21 digs while working against Lumberton’s hitters Katelyn Culbreth and Hailey Werrell. Lambeth and Maultsby each pushed up nine digs, and Jordan was second on the team with 13.
The final week of the regular season begins Tuesday at Seventy-First High School (4-10, 4-7 SAC), before closing with senior night at home against rival Scotland High School (14-7, 10-2 SAC). Both matches will begin at 6 p.m.
