LUMBERTON — With the ebbs and flows and junctures where momentum shifted drastically in the match, it was a final push from the Lumberton volleyball team on Thursday that helped it claim a key Sandhills Athletic Conference win over Richmond Senior in five sets at home.

With the end of the regular season approaching next week, the Lady Pirates and Lady Raiders were in need of a win to close out the week to build momentum to go into next week with. Lumberton and Richmond traded blows in the match with scores of 25-23, 23-25, 25-12, 15-25 and 15-13.

Lumberton (12-6, 6-6 SAC) used its play at the net with lanky seniors Hailey Werrell and Katelyn Culbreth to attempt to negate one of Richmond’s (15-5, 7-5 SAC) strengths.

“We had to go bigger at the front through the match to offset some of their hitting. They hit the ball pretty well,” Register said. “Both of them did a super job. Hailey is a little more offensive and Katelyn is a better blocker and they both did a good job of neutralizing their middle.”

While the Lady Raiders laid out a plan to negate the two hitters, they had their struggles.

“They’re their power hitters and that’s who they look to get to,” Richmond coach Ashleigh Larsen said of Culbreth and Werrell. “Jadyn (Johnson) did a good job of reading No. 11 (Werrell) and dug most of her balls, which is good, but we just couldn’t do the same thing on the other side. They were smart and they did what they wanted to do to move the ball well.”

The fifth set was a microcosm of the match as a whole as far as the way teams used their runs.

Lumberton took a 4-0 lead thanks in part to three straight aces from Lennon Hickman. Richmond rallied to tie the set at 7-all, and the teams switched out points before Lady Pirate kills from August Smith, then back-to-back kills coming from Werrell made it a 14-10 lead for Lumberton.

“They kind of got back on their heels that last set and the second set to dig themselves in too deep of a hole like we have the last couple nights,” Larsen said. “Lumberton came out to play and had the home crowd on their side so that helped them a little bit.”

The Lady Raiders held off the defeat for the next few serves with kills from Taylor Chappell and Georgia Grace Anderson that cut the lead to 14-13 before a Werrell block ended a long volley on the next serve to end the match.

After each team took early leads in each of the first two sets, Lumberton in the first and Richmond in the second, their opponents mounted comebacks to tie the sets up late.

Lumberton jumped out to a 20-15 lead in the first before Richmond knotted the score at 23-all. Two Lady Raider errors ended that set. In the second, Richmond took a 10-7 lead, before Lumberton stole momentum to go up 14-11 and the score reached a 16-16 tie. A pair of kills from Chappell late in the set helped Richmond tie the match at a set apiece.

Richmond looked to take a 2-1 set lead in the match early in the second set when it built up a 12-3 advantage thanks to miscues from Lumberton as well as play at the net by Jakerra Covington and Johnson.

Then, Lumberton rode the serve of Mallori Allen to cut the advantage to 12-10. A few serves later, Keke Lawrence’s kill made it 13-12. For the second time in the match, Tehya Bullard used her serve to start a Lumberton rally to tie the score at 18-all in the third set. Lawrence had a pair of kills and Werrell added a block over the rest of the set to fuel the Lady Pirates to the set win.

“I’m proud of the way our girls fought. They never gave up, even right there at the end when it could’ve gone either way,” Lumberton coach Mackie Register said. “We’ve been in a lot of five-set matches so I guess our girls are little more experienced in that situation.”

Richmond did not allow its large lead to start the fourth set spoil, turning a 14-4 lead into a 25-15 win. The Lady Raiders offense was balanced in the set with four players having more than two kills, led by Anderson with three.

Anderson led the Lady Raiders with 16 total kills, while Johnson had 10 kills and 21 digs and Carley Lambeth dished 34 assists. Awaiting Richmond next week is a road match at Seventy-First and senior night at home against Scotland.

“Hopefully we will have a whole new mindset next week. We played two games this week, this was our third so I don’t know if they were tired going into the week,” Larsen said. “Only having two next week will help. We need to get the momentum back on our side and get that aggressiveness back.”

Lumberton goes to Scotland on Tuesday and closes out the season against Purnell Swett.

Jonathan Bym| The Robesonian
Jadyn Johnson, left, attempts a swing against Lumberton’s Hailey Werrell in a road matchup on Thursday. The Lady Raiders split the season series with the Lady Pirates via the 3-2 loss.
https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/web1_RVB2_atLum.jpgJonathan Bym| The Robesonian
Jadyn Johnson, left, attempts a swing against Lumberton’s Hailey Werrell in a road matchup on Thursday. The Lady Raiders split the season series with the Lady Pirates via the 3-2 loss.
Teams split season series

By Jonathan Bym,

The Robesonian sports editor