ROCKINGHAM — It may have only taken the Lady Raider volleyball team three sets to win Tuesday’s match, but it wasn’t an easy victory, as they had to fight their way back into the final set after falling behind by as much as nine points.

“They like to stress me out,” coach Shellie Wimpey said with a laugh. “Once we realized that their balls were going out, and we should let them go out instead of trying to handle them, we kind of got our momentum back.”

Richmond was able to handle conference foe Pinecrest in the first two sets, but found itself in trouble early in the third after the visiting team jumped out to an 16-7 lead and forced Wimpey to call her second timeout of the set.

The brief break in the action proved to be the turning point the Lady Raiders needed, as they went on a 18-6 run over the next few minutes in order to sweep Pinecrest in three sets (25-12, 25-19, 25-22) — making it the fourth time this season Richmond has defeated its opponent 3-0.

“I feel like we had more court awareness. That was a lot better,” Wimpey said of her team’s performance after the second timeout. “We were able to set up some things, get some hits and make them move.”

Pinecrest (1-2, 1-1 SAC) was clicking on all cylinders in the early going of the third set.

The energy coming from the Lady Patriots’ side of the court was through the roof as a Nicole Barnes’ kill and a few offensive errors by the Lady Raiders helped them gain the nine-point advantage. They weren’t able to keep that same energy as the match progressed, however, and their lead slowly began to slip away.

Richmond (6-0, 2-0 SAC) came storming back and eventually tied things up before an ace from Mackenzie Webb put the home team ahead 19-18 — forcing the Lady Patriots to call a timeout that didn’t work in their favor.

Kills from seniors Owen Bowers and Altman Griffin and sophomore Jadyn Johnson, combined with two Pinecrest errors, put Richmond in position to seal the deal. And senior Bri Baysek did just that with a well-placed kill that ended the match.

“It was really great to come out and actually win this game. That was big,” Wimpey said.

Griffin finished with a team-high eight kills and 12 digs, Webb added 21 assists and six digs and both Baysek (5 kills, 1 dig, 2 aces) and Bowers (6 kills, 8 digs, 2 aces) had two blocks.

Richmond will look to keep its perfect record in tact when it hosts Lee County on Wednesday (5:30 p.m.) and then travels to Jack Britt, a new conference opponent, on Thursday (6 p.m.).

“These are big teams too…so we have to be ready to play,” Wimpey added.

Reach sports editor Leon Hargrove Jr. at 910-817-2673 and follow the sports section on Twitter @RCDailySports.

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By Leon Hargrove Jr.

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