ROCKINGHAM - Thursday’s volleyball match featuring the Richmond Lady Raiders and the Jack Britt Lady Buccaneers was an early-season Sandhills Athletic Conference contest that saw the home team swept in straight sets for the second time this season.
Two nights after traveling to archrival Pinecrest High School, a 3-2 loss after winning the first set, Richmond dropped its second straight regular season SAC matchup, which has been a rarity over the past couple of seasons. Prior to the loss to the Lady Patriots, the Lady Raiders had knocked off conference opponents in 26 straight matches dating back to 2015.
Richmond (4-3, 1-2 SAC) is still trying to find its footing under first-year head coach Ashleigh Larsen, and is also trying to fill the void left by four graduated All-SAC players from a year ago. And while the Lady Raiders have shown a lot of spunk and tenacity in the opening three weeks of the year, Thursday’s match “wasn’t the best effort” according to their head coach.
Set scores against the Lady Bucs were 23-25, 23-25 and 17-25. In the opening two sets, in which the Lady Raiders held small leads at different times, Richmond made it interesting in the closing points. They would go on two 5-1 runs, edging closer in the first set at 24-23, and knotting the second set at 23 points before ultimately falling.
“I told the girls that I thought Pinecrest was a more well-rounded team altogether compared to Jack Britt, and we took them to five sets,” Larsen said after the match. “They (Jack Britt) really only had No. 9 (Lexy Cole), and that was it. Our girls just gave up on themselves tonight -- if we’re going to lose, we need to at least make it to five sets.”
Richmond senior outside hitter Savannah Lampley, who was third in the SAC in kills entering the night (72), led her team for the seventh time this season in total kills. She racked up 10 kills, with her five in the second set being her best of the night. She had two kills in the first, and three kills in the third.
Junior right side hitter Allexis Swiney and sophomore middle hitter Georgia Grace Anderson, who Larsen noted as “playing more aggressively at the net” Thursday, each had four kills on the night, while junior Jadyn Johnson rounded out the team’s 21 kills with three of her own.
Cole was Richmond’s biggest competition Thursday, as she entered the match leading the SAC with 87 total kills through 29 sets played. Junior Kaiah Parker was also strong from the top of the net, as the two combined to keep Richmond on its defensive hills throughout the three sets. As a team, the Lady Raiders tallied 50 total digs, their most in a three-set match this season.
Junior libero Layne Maultsby played well from the back row, leading the Lady Raiders with a team-high 16 digs. Johnson (12 digs), junior setter Carley Lambeth (eight digs) and Lampley (seven digs) chipped in on the defensive front.
In the first set, Richmond jumped out to a 5-1 lead thanks to a Lambeth ace for the match’s first point, followed by a Johnson kill and a block-assist by Swiney and senior Savannah Chappell at the net. But an 8-0 run by Jack Britt in the middle of the set gave the Lady Bucs a 14-10 lead, causing Larsen to call a timeout.
Jack Britt’s largest lead of the opening frame would be six points, 21-15, but a Richmond rally made things interesting. In the 5-1 run, Anderson had a kill, and was aided by two Lampley kills. But Lady Raider serving error and a long volley that saw successive athletic plays by Lambeth, Swiney and Maultsby to keep hope alive, ended when Cole leapt up and drilled home a kill that ended the set 23-25.
To begin the second set, Jack Britt used an 11-5 run to take a 15-8 lead. But Richmond didn’t give up, as it chipped away slowly at the lead, thanks in part to several Jack Britt errors, and pulled within three, 20-16.
For the second straight set, Richmond mustered a late 5-1 push, starting with a Lampley tip into an open space on the floor. She would add another one a few sequences later, and another ace by Lambeth, who led Richmond with three on the night, tied it up at 23 points. A Richmond hitting error, coupled with a black-assist by Caitlin Broomes and Ella Spies, stunted the would-be rally.
The third set saw an early 9-8 Lady Raider lead, and the set would stay close as both teams were tied at 17 points. Jack Britt went up three points, and Larsen called a timeout -- but a 5-0 Lady Bucs run out of the break that saw three errors by Richmond, closed the match out in three sets.
With the loss, Richmond slides to sixth place in the SAC standings, as Jack Britt and Pinecrest are tied at the top with perfect 3-0 records. Next week, the Lady Raiders will host Hoke County (Tuesday, 6 p.m.), before traveling to Lee County (Wednesday, 6 p.m.) and Lumberton (Thursday, 6 p.m.).
“We just need to work on some things,” Larsen wrapped up. “It’s the same thing every week -- we need to move our feet passes and be more aggressive on hitting. Our confidence in one another has been missing the past couple of matches. When we’re up, they’re enjoying it. But when we’re down, they don’t know how to get themselves out of a hole. As a team, we’ve got to get back together next week and start winning again.”
