The Richmond Senior High School Lady Raiders hope to quickly bounce back from Thursday’s sweep at the hands of Uwharrie Charter with Sandhills Athletic Conference play set to open Tuesday.
The Lady Raiders seemed just another notch in Uwharrie’s already lengthy belt of blowouts with the Lady Eagles taking their record to 9-1 with last Thursday’s 25-19, 25-13 and 25-12 sweep Monday.
“We knew it was going to be tough. It was a long week. It was our 10th game in less than two weeks. We play a lot of volleyball. I feel like we’ve played enough this year to where we know each other pretty well, and play well with each other on the court,” Uwharrie coach Lee Kennell said.
Despite facing double-digit deficits throughout much of the night, the Lady Raiders found a way to rally and pick up a bit of momentum in each set. Kennell said he liked facing the scrappy Lady Raiders. With Uwharrie also facing a tough conference schedule, Kennell said playing a team that has a never-say-die attitude like the Lady Raiders is great preparation for the teams they will face in the coming weeks.
“They’re scrappy. Every year they’re super scrappy. We had to change a little bit of what they were doing defensively to make them move a little bit. They’re scrappy. They were getting everything up tonight,” Kennell said.
As for the Lady Raiders, they drop to 3-2 after opening the week on the road with a 3-1 victory over the Montgomery Central Lady Timberwolves 25-23, 23-25, 25-20 and 25-18. The Lady Raiders hope to get back in the win column when they host the Lady Timberwolves Monday, which will be their final non-conference game before opening SAC play on the road against Southern Lee Tuesday.
“I was really proud of them in the first set. We were down by 9 points, and we came back to make it really close. The second set, started to do the same, we just got into a serve-receive we could not get out of. The third set, I think we made too many mistakes early on. It’s a good lesson to learn. I’m glad it’s happening now, and hopefully we can build off of that during our three-game week next week,” RSHS coach Ashleigh Larsen said.
While many larger schools choose to field cupcake schedules before conference play, Larsen has the opposite approach. Elite teams have a tendency to expose weaknesses, and correcting those weaknesses ahead of conference play will be essential for success in the SAC.
“They’re super important. They’re going to play just like teams in our conference. You schedule games against teams that will make you better, and make you work harder in practice. [The Lady Raiders] are angry, and they’re hungry. They just want to get better,” Larsen said.