PEMBROKE, N.C. - The first word that came to Richmond Senior High School head volleyball coach Ashleigh Larsen’s mind following Thursday’s win over Purnell Swett High School was “inconsistent.”
Which is ironic because the Lady Raiders took care of business and silenced the Lady Rams 3-0 for the team’s second sweep against an opponent this season in five matches.
What led Larsen to say that about her team’s performance in the Sandhills Athletic Conference opener was the match’s second set, which proved to her that the Lady Raiders have what it takes to be a force on the court.
In action for the third time this week, and the second time in as many nights, Richmond cruised to its fourth win of the year. Now 4-1 through their first five matches, the Lady Raiders (4-1, 1-0 SAC) took Thursday’s match in straight sets in scores of 27-25, 25-5 and 25-21.
It was the Lady Raiders’ 26th-straight regular season win against SAC opponents, as they haven’t dropped a match to a conference foe since losing 3-0 to Pinecrest High School on Oct. 13, 2015. That stretch doesn’t include conference tournament matches, which the Lady Raiders have accumulated a 4-1 record in that same span.
“It’s funny that the biggest word that comes to mind is ‘inconsistent’,” Larsen said following her team’s win. “The girls played really well, and Purnell Swett (2-3, 0-1 SAC) is a scrappy team , so credit to them. But we like to dig ourselves into holes, so the second set shows me we have the confidence in ourselves to do what we need to do to be dominant.
“I don’t know why we can’t play like the second set more consistently,” she laughed. “But we really flustered Purnell Swett in that set by moving girls across the floor and dragging some of our blockers. It was a really good game and great way to start off our conference schedule.”
Entering the night, senior outside hitter Savannah Lampley led the SAC in kills with 51. She followed up her 20-kill performance Wednesday against Uwharrie Charter Academy by adding a team-high nine kills. Sophomore middle hitter Georgia Grace Anderson tallied eight kills in the win, while junior outside hitter Jadyn Johnson joined the mix with five kills of her own.
As a team, perhaps most impressively, was the Lady Raiders’ 13 aces against the Lady Rams. It is a season-high for Richmond, and the girls in green and gold racked up seven of them in the second set alone. Johnson led the team with four on the night, Anderson had three and four other players had at least one.
Larsen described the first set as “bouncing back and forth,” as both teams managed to get a couple of good serves up to start small runs to keep it tight. What made it closer than Richmond would have like was the amount of Purnell Swett “mishits that found a way to come over the net,” as well as the home team being able to “hit the ball hard enough to roll over block attempts.”
Anderson had three of her kills in the opening set, as junior setter Carley Lambeth dished out nine of her 27 total assists in the opening frame. Johnson, Lampley and junior Allexis Swiney each added two kills in the 27-25 win. The team also had a match-high 15 digs in the opening frame, as five players each had three digs apiece.
The bright spot for Richmond Thursday, and more of what Larsen hopes to see moving forward, was the second set. In addition to the seven-ace effort, the Lady Raiders tacked on eight kills, five digs and Lambeth served up eight assists.
“In the second game, we literally put everything to them,” Larsen noted. “Purnell Swett was down and they’re a really outspoken team, so that showed we were playing well. Most of their five points came on errors by us, and we didn’t even get through a full serve rotation, which shows how well the girls were playing.
“The second set showed me that there’s a lot more power and push behind our girls,” she added of the 25-5 rout.
Johnson served the ball 10 times in the second set, with three aces, and Richmond would go on to win nine points off of her serves. Larsen explained that junior libero Layne Maultsby and Lambeth both “added some strong serves that made Purnell Swett work,” and that she’d like to see the same tenacity “in every game.” Anderson had all three of her aces in the set, while Maultsby added one.
The final set of the night mirrored the first, as both teams made small runs back and forth. According to Larsen, it appeared that her team had become “complacent” because it figured it had won. Richmond put the cherry on top of its win over Corey Deese’s team with a 25-21 set score.
With week two in the books, the Lady Raiders will begin preparing for two tough SAC matches next week. They’ll travel to Pinecerst High School (2-4, 1-0 SAC) Tuesday, before hosting Jack Britt High School (2-6, 1-0 SAC) Thursday. Last season Pinecrest finished second behind Richmond in the conference (10-4), and Jack Britt ended up in fourth place (8-6). Both teams won their resective SAC openers Thursday.
“I saw a lot of great things tonight, but also saw some things that we need to continue to work on,” Larsen concluded. “We’ve got a big week ahead with Pinecrest and Jack Britt, so I hope we can continue to win.”
Note: The Lady Raider junior varsity team also won its match Thursday 2-1 over the Lady Rams. It was the first time this season that they went three sets, as they downed Purnell Swett 25-17, 21-25 and 25-20.
Sophomore Jakerra Covington had four kills, three aces and one block. Kierston Gibson and Kaitlyn Huff both had three kills, while Allyiah Swinet had two kills and an ace. The Lady Raiders improved to 5-0 on the season.
