MT. GILEAD — For the second straight night, the Richmond Senior High School volleyball team dug its heels in and refused to give up and was rewarded.
On the road at West Montgomery High School playing newly formed Montgomery Central High School, the Lady Raiders overcame two one-set deficits to earn a 3-2 road win over the non-conference Lady Timberwolves.
Set scores were 21-25, 25-17, 23-25, 25-23 and 15-4. Senior outside hitter Jadyn Johnson would be responsible for leading the charge in the final set, serving a nine-point streak to give Richmond (2-0) a comfortable 11-2 lead.
“I think it had to do a lot with our team,” Johnson said of her scoring run. “We got more energy on our side and that really helped me serving. It was really big for our team because it gave us the momentum to win the fifth set.
“In that situation you have to tell yourself it’s the fifth set and it’s really important to do the same thing over and over again when it’s working,” she added. “We pulled together and tried to work more as a team and worked toward our goal of winning.”
Two nights into the 2019 season, the Lady Raiders have two wins to show, but Wednesday’s match took some grit from head coach Ashleigh Larsen’s squad. Richmond held a lead in each of the five sets, but saw late leads of three points and four points washed away in the first and third sets, respectively.
Another element both teams had to take into account was the gym’s heat, which had no air conditioning.
“The humidity definitely played a toll on both teams,” Larsen commented. “It was obvious that everyone started to get tired in the third and fourth sets. But just like last night (against Anson High School), we’d get the momentum early and then let (Montgomery Central) get it back and run with it.
“We missed a lot more serves tonight than we normally do,” she continued. “Serve-receive kept us off balance, too. But we turned it around in the fifth set and Jadyn served them off the court and got us back in the game.”
In the second set, senior libero Layne Maultsby served a 5-0 run that included three aces to help the Lady Raiders out to a 7-3 lead. Following a Montgomery Central timeout, points from senior outside hitter Madison Jordan and junior middle hitter Georgia Grace Anderson kept Richmond ahead.
Up 14-8, junior middle hitter Jakerra Covington picked up one of her team-high five blocks, ultimately shifting the set’s momentum. Richmond closed on an 11-9 run, ending with another Covington block for the final point.
Trailing 2-1, the Lady Raiders rolled out to a 12-3 lead in the fourth set. Johnson, Jordan and Covington broke the set open with a series of kills in the middle of the frame. The Lady Timberwolves made things interesting, closing the gap to 23-22, but back-to-back kills from Johnson and Covington forced the game to the fifth set.
Johnson took over the serving line with the fifth set tied at two, and rallied the Lady Raiders out to nine-point lead. During that stretch, she earned an ace, while senior setter Carley Lambeth notched back-to-back points on pushes into open space.
Jordan picked up two kills in the final span of play, and Anderson delivered a strong right-handed kill for the match-winner.
Leading the Lady Raiders in the kill department was Johnson, who racked up 10 kills on the night, while also serving a team-best five aces. Jordan had nine kills, while Anderson and Covington each finished with eight kills.
Maultsby added four aces, and Lambeth chipped in four kills and dished out 41 assists.
Richmond will return to the court for the first of its three matches next week on Monday when Montgomery Central (0-2) visits Rockingham. Varsity is set for a 6 p.m. start.
JV Lady Raiders earn first win of 2019
Also earning a win on the road Wednesday was the Richmond junior varsity volleyball team (1-1). In what turned out to be head coach Melissa Dennis’ first career win, the JV Lady Raiders won 2-1. Set scores were 26-24, 21-25 and 15-12.
Sophomore Taylor Waitley led the team in kills for the second match in a row, knocking eight in the win. Fellow sophomore Saniah Durham had three kills, while Allyiah Swiney, Erial Norton and Catherine Dennis each had two.
Dennis, Swiney and Waitley all had four aces in the match. The JV squad will start at 5 p.m. against the Lady Timberwolves on Monday.
