SOUTHERN PINES - The Richmond Senior High School varsity volleyball team entered Tuesday’s match against Sandhills Athletic Conference rival Pinecrest High School with a 26-match unbeaten streak in SAC play.
But despite a hot start, followed by a valiant effort in the late going, head coach Ashleigh Larsen’s team fell to the Lady Patriots in a heartbreaking five-set match. Tuesday’s loss was the first time Richmond had not beaten a conference opponent in the regular season (not counting conference tournaments) since dropping a 3-0 contest to Pinecrest on Oct. 13, 2015.
During that nearly three-year span, the Lady Raiders won 89 total sets during conference matches, and only lost 11. Richmond’s best tally was against Scotland High School, which it racked up a 21-4 set record in the six regular season matches.
Back to Tuesday’s action, Larsen’s team had a handful of chances to shut the door on Scott Shepherd’s team, but the Lady Raiders ultimately fell in set scores of: 25-22, 23-25, 25-23, 15-25 and 14-16. Richmond’s match against Pinecrest was its second SAC contest of the 2018 campaign, and the Lady Raiders’ record fell to 4-2 overall, with a 1-1 record in the conference.
“The girls were determined from the first set to the fifth set,” Larsen said afterward. “They stayed focused and they did what I asked them to do. They did a good job of keeping their heads up and staying positive even when we were down. Pinecrest (3-1, 2-0 SAC) was just a force to be reckoned with.”
Every set except for the fourth was a close affair, with the winning team edging out the other by three points or less. In the first set, Richmond opened the match on a 4-0 run thanks to four straight Pinecrest errors, but the Lady Patriots rallied back with a 6-0 run to take an early two-point lead.
Much of the match was to-and-fro, as both teams made it commonplace to trade a couple of points here and there on short runs. There would be 10 total ties in the opening frame, and that changed in the Lady Raiders’ favor when junior Layne Maultsby served up her lone ace on the night to knot the score at 19.
Maultsby’s point sparked a 6-3 Richmond run to end the set, which included aces by junior Jadyn Johnson and sophomore Georgia Grace Anderson (which was the set winner). Anderson and senior Savannah Lampley also had kills in that stretch, as Lampley’s right-hander created the set-point opportunity.
The six aces in the first set were the most Richmond had in any on the night, and was the second-most its tallied in a set this season (seven against Purnell Swett High School last week). The Lady Raiders also played sound defense in the opening set, as they dug the ball 16 times, exactly 25 percent of their total match digs.
Shepherd’s team responded with a win in the second set, as both teams grinded it out to the end. Much like the first set, Richmond jumped out to and early 3-0 lead before Pinecrest matched it to force an early tie. Anderson’s best set of the night came in the second frame, as she one kill, as well as back-to-back tips at the net to give the Lady Raiders a 10-7 lead.
A 4-0 Lady Patriot run made it 14-12 in their favor, but Lampley and junior Carley Lambeth battled back with a kill and a tip, respectively, to tie the set at 19, forcing Shepherd to call a timeout. But a couple of Richmond errors down the stretch, and a kill by Camille Honeycutt, iced the set for Pinecrest.
Back on the court for the third set, both teams followed the script of the previous two. Again, Richmond hopped out to a 5-0 lead, but gave it up to allow Pinecrest to take a 6-5 advantage. Seven more ties would display on the scoreboard before a 5-0 run by the Lady Patriots, including an ace by Liz Mann spurred a 19-17 lead for the home team.
Larsen would call a timeout -- and it would have its desired effect.
Out of the short break, Richmond’s deficit increased to 21-18 before senior Savannah Chappell and junior Allexis Swiney teamed up for a block at the net. From there, the tides turned, and a Lambeth set to Swiney, which resulted in a kill, gave Richmond a 22-21 lead. Thanks to a serving error by Pinecrest, paired with a setting violation, Richmond rallied for a 25-23 win.
With a chance to put the Lady Patriots away and keep the streak alive, Richmond squandered the opportunity in the fourth set. A 6-2 Pinecrest run set the tone early, as Shepherd’s team used another 8-3 run midway through to give it an 18-12 lead. Pinecrest closed the win-or-go-home set with a 7-2 run. The only bright spots in the fourth set for the Lady Raiders were two Anderson kills and another one by Johnson.
Forcing a fifth set by winning the fourth 25-23, Pinecrest got off to a fast 6-2 start that made Larsen call another timeout. Over the course of the next nine points earned, the Lady Raiders would collect six of them to narrow the gap to just one point, 9-8, thanks to kills by Johnson and Lampley.
A dual block by Chappell and Lampley on the next sequence tied the match, and Richmond got its first lead when a Pinecrest ball hit the net. Another setter violation made it 11-9 in favor of the Lady Raiders, but Pinecrest mustered a 7-3 run to seal the come-from-behind victory. Tied at 14, kills by Lauren Shepherd and Lexi Allen ended the match.
“When we came out in the fourth set and were up, I told the girls we can’t dig ourselves in a hole like we did tonight,” Larsen said. “We went into the fifth set as the ‘underdog,’ and the momentum was in (Pinecrest’s) favor. We’ve come back from situations like that before this season, but not having that momentum hurt us.”
On the night, Lampley once again led the Lady Raiders in kills with 13 (half of the team total), and was aided by Anderson’s six kills. Johnson led the team with four aces, as Anderson and Lambeth each chipped in three of their own. Defensively, Richmond accumulated 64 team digs, with Lambeth leading the way with 26. Johnson and Maultsby both had 13 digs, while Lampley added eight more.
The Lady Raiders will look to have a short memory and start a new SAC winning streak, as they’ll host Jack Britt High School Thursday (6 p.m.). The Lady Buccaneers are 3-2 on the year, and are tied atop the SAC with Pinecrest with a 2-0 record.
“We have to take tonight’s game and build on it for Thursday,” Larsen closed. “Jack Britt will be the same caliber team as Pinecrest. I hope to fix some small mistakes in practice (Wednesday), and hopefully we turn things back around.”
