ROCKINGHAM — Even though they played hard on Tuesday, the Richmond Senior High School volleyball team couldn’t finish the job.
In the last game of the regular season, the Lady Raiders lost 3-0 at home to Scotland High School in the first round of Sandhills Athletic Conference play.
Richmond was ahead at different points in each set, but in the end, the scores were 18-25, 15-25, and 23-25.
The loss was the sixth game in a row that the Lady Raiders couldn’t crack the win column.
Head coach Ashleigh Larsen said, “It’s like the same song every night.” “It’s like we can’t get over that little bump to end sets.” In practice, we work on everything we need to.
She went on, “I thought our defense picked up some things against one or two of Scotland’s big hitters.” “We’ve seen things like this before.” At times, we had good control of the game.
The first set was tied 4–2. Richmond was ahead thanks to kills by senior Sharonda Henderson and junior Riley McDonald. There was a 15-7 gap after runs of 6-0 and 6-1 by Scotland (10-2, 4-2 SAC), which led to a timeout for Richmond.
The lead was cut down to one point when sophomore Madisen Jackson drilled a shot to the floor and then junior J’Nasia Neal made two aces. To close the gap to 18-13, senior Ava Edmondson stopped a ball at the net.
Scotland beat Richmond 7–5 after trading points for the rest of the first set. Kanye McCormick, a sophomore, hit an ace for Richmond, and Jackson added another kill from the middle of the court.
Richmond was only behind by two points early in the second half thanks to points from McDonald, junior Kenley Smith, and Neal. The Lady Scots, on the other hand, scored six straight to start the game.
With the score 18-8, Larsen called a break. Henderson got a kill right after the break, and McDonald scored three points at the net. Even though Richmond and Scotland tied the next 14 volleys, the guests won the first two sets.
Ten of the games in the third set were tied, as the Lady Raiders tried to get back into the game. An 8-6 lead was helped by aces from Smith, Edmondson, and junior Kaylan Parsons.
With a kill from outside, junior Ka’mora Watkins broke a 10-10 tie, and McDonald’s block tied the game at 13 points apiece. With a kill from Neal and two aces in a row from McDonald, Richmond took a 16–15 lead.
The score was tied at 17 points after one more attack from Neal. Scots scored seven goals in a row to tie the game.
McDonald didn’t give up easily; he killed two people to keep Richmond alive. As the run went on, Edmondson served and made a push at the net for the Lady Raiders’ last point.
Larsen said, “We need to put together the little things to get over the mid-game hump.”
“Missed serves” and “communication” were two things that the Lady Raiders had trouble with against Scotland, she said.
Richmond (5-8, 1-5 SAC) will not play in a conference game on Wednesday when it goes to Pine Forest High School (7-6), which is not in the league. It’s going to start at 6 p.m.
JV Lady Raiders complete comeback
After falling behind early in their match against Scotland on Tuesday, the Richmond junior varsity volleyball team worked hard to get back on top.
It went to a third set, which the JV Lady Raiders won 2-1. The scores in each set were 22–25, 25–21, and 15–7.
With a 22–18 lead, Richmond could have ended the first set. But Scotland scored seven straight points to go ahead 1-0.
Richmond got off to a good start in the second set thanks to two aces from sophomore Lillian Hill and a kill from sophomore Ava Edwards. A mistake and an ace from freshman Kaylee Conner made the score 9-6.
After falling behind, senior Kaylee Dunn’s kill, an ace by Edwards, and a mistake by Scotland tied the game at 14-14. After that, Dunn and Conner’s kills and rookie Lizzie Lunceford’s service helped erase another small deficit, giving the team a 17-16 lead.
In the last few points, junior Addison Butler had a key kill, and then Conner hit an ace. Richmond won the set when Scotland made a mistake on serve, going up 24–21.
From the service line, Hill went on a 4-0 run to start the third set. Due to a Butler kill, there was an early break.
There was a five-point run for Richmond after Conner swished two aces in a row. Two kills by Edwards and an ace by Butler put Richmond ahead 12–5. Three mistakes by Scotland put Richmond ahead.
With kills from Butler and Edwards and a service mistake in the middle, the JV Lady Raiders won the match.
Lisa Dennis, head coach, said, “Our passes looked better tonight, but we were very shy at the net during that first set.”
The fact that we became more offensive helped us gain speed. We were able to finish strong.