Richmond’s LaShey Brown (15) and Natalie Brown (5) attempt to block a kill attempt by New Bern’s Ally Pollock (right) as Loanne Perez watches Tuesday afternoon. The Lady Raiders eliminated New Bern in four games.
For the first time in school history, the Lady Raiders advanced to the third round of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association’s state 4A volleyball tournament. Richmond defeated New Bern 23-25, 27-25, 25-22 and 25-10 in the second round at Raider Gymnasium.
Richmond (16-6) will play at defending state champions JH Rose, which swept South View 25-4, 25-8 and 25-12, Thursday afternoon.
“According to (Raider athletic director) Hal (Shuler), no team has ever made it this far, which is big for this program,” Lady Raider coach Wendy Wallace said. “This shows how far our program has come over the past couple years. It’s a great achievement for this group of girls. They played through the struggles and gutted it out. Our seniors showed good leadership and they wanted to continue their season.”
Typically, Richmond has gotten off to slow starts, but jumped out to a 8-0 lead in game one following a kill from Rebecca Kinsey. But the Lady Bears battled back to tie the game at 20 on a side out from the Lady Raiders. Lucy Pogosian’s ace gave New Bern a 21-20 advantage. After Richmond evened it at 21, Jenna Green’s tip and a Lady Raiders’ hitting error pushed New Bern’s lead to 23-21.
Allyson Wood’s block trimmed the Richmond deficit to 23-22, but Ally Pollock’s kill extended New Bern’s lead to 24-22. After Richmond received a point to narrow it to 24-23, Holly Lafond’s game-winning tip gave New Bern a 25-23 come-from-behind victory.
“I was excited by the way we started, but we gave them to many free points,” Wallace said. “New Bern played scrappy, didn’t allow a lot of points to hit the floor and they took us out of our game and frustrated us.”
The Lady Raiders again got off to a quick start and led 11-3 in the second game. However, the Lady Bears clawed back and knotted the game at 15 on Loanne Perez’s service ace. New Bern grabbed a 20-18 advantage, but Richmond later tied it at 20. Michelle Brown’s three straight aces extended the Lady Raiders’ lead to 23-20.
But New Bern scored the next five out of six points to take a 25-24 lead. LaShey Brown stepped up for the Lady Raiders, getting a block and serving back-to-back aces to rally Richmond to a 27-25 win and even the match at 1. Brown finished with 16 service points, nine kills, six aces, four blocks and six digs.
“(La)Shey definitely kept us from losing the second game, which would’ve been a big hole to climb out of,” Wallace said. “She had several big blocks, big tips and play smart. She did a great job playing the middle and stepped up at the most opportune time.”
The third game was another nip-and-tuck battle by both teams. New Bern only led once and Richmond’s largest lead was six points and the game was tied eight different times. The last time coming after a Wallace tip evened matters at 21. But a New Bern side out allowed Richmond to lead 22-21, Michelle Brown’s ace and LaShey Brown’s kill increased the Lady Raiders’ advantage to 24-21.
New Bern cut the deficit to 24-22, but Brittani Hodges’ kill closed out the game as Richmond prevailed 25-22.
“We had a lot of mental mistakes that hurt us,” Lady Bears coach Pam Tart said. “It’s disappointing to fall short, but this is only my second year coaching at New Bern and our program took some giant steps forward this season.”
The Lady Raiders started strong and finished that way in the fourth game to finish off the match. Richmond jumped out to a 10-2 lead and the closest the Lady Bears got the rest of the game was to within six points. Wood served up four straight points, including two aces that gave the Lady Raiders a 22-9 lead and Richmond cruised to a 15-point victory.
Wood finished with 28 assists, while Natalie Brown had 14 kills. Pollack finished with 14 assists for New Bern.
“The last game was the largest margin of victory by either team,” Wallace said. “I told them during a timeout to go ahead and put the nail in the coffin and the girls were able to do that. The rest of the way we’re going to be going against some very quality teams and the key for us is continuing being aggressive on offense.”
n Scotland, the only other Southeastern Conference team remaining, swept Ashley to advance to play the winner of the Jack Britt-Hoggard match.
n Contact sports reporter Corey Davis at 997-3111, ext. 44; e-mail cdavis@yourdailyjournal.com
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