ROCKINGHAM — The name of the game Thursday for the Richmond Senior High School volleyball team was all gas and no brakes to start the second round of regular-season conference play.
Rebounding from a tough five-set loss Tuesday, the Lady Raiders were firing on all cylinders on their home floor against Pine Forest High School.
Getting everyone involved, Richmond cruised to a 3-0 victory in the Mid-South Conference contest. The sweep over the Lady Trojans marked the team’s fifth three-set victory this season, and completed the series sweep for Richmond.
Dominating early, the Lady Raiders took the first two sets by respective scores of 25-13 and 25-10. A closer third set ended in a 25-23 win after Richmond fended off a late rally attempt by Pine Forest.
Richmond used two long serving runs by juniors Riley McDonald and Kenley Smith to help win the opening stanza. A back row kill from Smith made it an early 5-3 lead and gave Richmond possession of the ball.
McDonald led the Lady Raiders to seven straight points, capitalizing on four errors by the Lady Trojans (0-16, 0-6 MSC). Finding the floor on two aces was McDonald and junior Madisen Jackson joined the attack with a kill to make it 12-2.
Later in the first, a pair of errors by Pine Forest gave Richmond a 19-10 lead. Smith went to the service line and rattled off a 7-0 run of her own, including back-to-back perfect serves to make it set point.
Adding to the run was senior Carleigh Gibson with two kills from the right side, as well as a kill from Neal on the opposite side of the net. Richmond took the early match lead thanks to a service error.
Beginning the second set on a 7-1 scoring stretch, the Lady Raiders scored five of those points with Gibson at the service line. She had an ace to accompany two McDonald kills and two of Pine Forest’s 11 total errors in the second.
An ace and a kill from Neal and Gibson, respectively, opened the lead to 11-2. Points from McDonald and Jackson in the middle were added to by junior Kaylee Connor, who had a pair of kills to make it 21-10.
Closing the set to put Richmond ahead 2-0 were consecutive spikes from McDonald and a pair of errors by the visitors.
With momentum still in their favor in the third stanza, the Lady Raiders had to work a little harder to maintain their lead. A series of ties early on went in Richmond’s favor when an error and a hard strike to the floor by Neal made it 6-4.
Senior Ka’mora Watkins joined the offense with a kill to help keep Richmond up two points and she went on a 5-0 serving run to increase the lead to 13-7. Aside from a kill from Neal, all of Richmond’s points came courtesy of Pine Forest mistakes.
A bump into open space by McDonald later in the set put Richmond ahead 22-16. The Lady Trojans would go on their longest run of the night and score seven of the next eight points to tie the set at 23 points.
Following a timeout called by head coach Ashleigh Larsen, Richmond shut the door thanks to a service error and final kill by Watkins.
Currently sitting in the top half of the conference standings, the Lady Raiders (10-6, 3-3 MSC) have a big week next week starting with a road match against Jack Britt High School (6-8, 2-3 MSC) Tuesday.
That will be followed by a home match against current conference leader Hoke County High School Thursday. Both matches will start at 6:30 p.m.
JV Lady Raiders return to win column
Thursday was also a successful night for the Richmond junior varsity volleyball team, which returned to the win column, too.
Hosting Pine Forest, the JV Lady Raiders rolled to a 2-0 win behind scores of 25-13 and 25-22. Freshman Alley Crouch delivered the match-winning kill, completing a comeback in the second set.
“I was very impressed with how aggressive the girls were tonight,” head coach Melissa Dennis said. “Pine Forest is very good defensively, so we knew we would have to do everything we could to find the floor.
“The girls stayed up and positive even when we were down in the second set. I am very proud of them.”
The JV Lady Raiders (8-8, 3-3 MSC) will play at Jack Britt Tuesday at 5 p.m.
The Richmond Observer will publish a photo gallery of Thursday’s win soon.
