ROCKINGHAM — Momentum continued to build deeper into Tuesday’s match for the Richmond Senior High School volleyball team, but it wasn’t able to capitalize in its season opener.
Becoming the school’s first varsity program to officially start the 2025 regular season, the Lady Raiders suffered a non-conference loss.
Hosting former Sandhills Athletic Conference opponent Lee County High School, Richmond lost in straight sets 3-0. Scores were 18-25, 21-25 and 24-26.
A late rally in the first set started the Lady Raiders’ momentum in the right direction, which was followed by a large run in the second set to erase another deficit. Unfortunately, Lee County managed to end each set before Richmond could complete the comebacks.
The Lady Raiders led by as many as five points late in the third set, but a 6-0 run by the Lady Yellow Jackets ended the match.
“I’m proud of the girls for powering through and coming back to make things interesting,” head coach Ashleigh Larsen said. “We were down quite a bit in the first set and the girls never quit.
“The girls were able to rally together and come back a little bit,” she added. “Unfortunately in the third set the momentum went in (Lee County’s) favor for the last couple of points.”
Richmond scored the first point of the new season when junior Kaylan Parsons connected for a kill along the right side following the opening serve. However, Lee County built its lead to double-digits, taking an 18-8 lead.
After a long delay to settle a discrepancy at the scorer’s table, a kill by senior J’Nasia Neal cut Richmond’s deficit to 19-9.
Two volleys later, a net violation by Lee County started Richmond’s longest run of points in the first set. Adding to the six-point stretch were junior Riley McDonald and Neal, who had a block and an ace, respectively.
Cutting the lead down to 20-15, Richmond couldn’t shut the door. Lee County used a 5-3 run to take the early match lead.
The Lady Yellow Jackets (1-0) quickly took a 10-4 lead in the second set, but senior Ka’mora Watkins delivered a kill from the left wing.
Larsen called a timeout with Richmond down 13-6. Out of the break, Parsons found the floor with a tip at the net, which started a 7-1 run for Richmond. Neal had a kill two rallies later and junior Kenley Smith dished out a trio of aces during the span, the final of which made it a 14-13 deficit.
Trading points, a kill from Watkins and a Lee County hitting error knotted the score at 18 points.
But similar to the first set, Lee County closed on a pivotal run, this one a 7-3 stretch. Watkins kept Richmond alive with a kill and another well-tipped ball at the net.
Seven ties is how the third set began. Junior Madisen Jackson made it 10-all with a tip at the net and Smith had another ace to give Richmond a one-point lead. McDonald powered home a pair of kills on back-to-back volleys and a kill by Neal made it 15-11 and forced a Lee County timeout.
Richmond led by as many as five points late into the third set, using several miscues by the Lady Yellow Jackets and a McDonald ace to stay ahead 21-16.
Parsons made a smart play to push the ball into open space and an errant pass by Lee County led to a 24-20 lead and another timeout for the visitors.
The Lady Raiders couldn’t recover from the pause in action and surrendered a 6-0 run to end the match. Larsen called two timeouts of her own but Richmond couldn’t rally.
“There are a couple little things we’ll work on,” Larsen closed. “These are small mistakes we’ve fixed before. Hopefully we’ll be able to prepare and turn things around for Thursday.”
The Lady Raiders (0-1) travel for the first time this season Thursday. They’ll play at non-conference Purnell Swett High School (0-0) at 6 p.m.
Click here to read about the Richmond junior varsity volleyball team’s season opener.
The Richmond Observer will publish a photo gallery of Tuesday’s varsity volleyball match soon. Official statistics were not available at the time of publication.
