Nerves, errors plague Lady Raiders in 3-0 loss to Pinecrest

SOUTHERN PINES — The Richmond Senior High School volleyball team dug themselves a deep hole early on and weren’t able to claw their way out of it Thursday night, falling 3-0 at Pinecrest.

The Lady Patriots wasted no time, jumping out to a 10-0 lead in the first set before cruising to win the set 25-5.

“I think the girls kind of let that first server run over us,” head coach Ashleigh Larsen said. “And then when we finally did win a point, we’d just lose it off an error. We’d finally get a good pass and we’re able to do something with it, but then we got called on doubles and have ball handling errors.

Seniors Shelly Hoffman and Georgia Grace Anderson both attributed the poor start to nerves, which Anderson said led to a lack of intensity early on.

“They have some great servers and we struggled to get going in that first set,” Anderson said. “I just think we got too much in our heads. We were behind from the start and I think we let that get to us.”

The start of the second set was a complete mirror image of the first. The Lady Raiders opened with a 6-0 run, but then Pinecrest returned with a scoring run of their own to tie things up and then eventually pull ahead. From there, the two teams exchanged points back-and-forth until the Lady Patriots closed it out 25-22.

Anderson could be heard throughout the gym attempting to catalyze a Raider comeback with her high energy outbursts and emotional celebrations after points, even from the bench, but to no avail.

Finally in the third set, Pinecrest was able to close out the win 25-20.

“We adjusted some things and I think that helped,” Larsen said. “We went out there with more positivity in the second and third sets, which kind of helped keep the score closer. Unfortunately, neither of them went our way, but still they did play a whole lot better and smarter.”

They may not have pulled out the victory, but Larsen said the way the Lady Raiders responded to the first set onslaught from Pinecrest is a positive sign going forward.

“After that first set, we regrouped and found our intensity again,” Anderson said. “Although the outcome wasn’t what we wanted, I think we played well in those [last] two sets.”

Hoffman agreed, saying that they were making better contact with the ball and had more movement on the court in the final two sets.

Senior Emy Cooley led the way with eight digs, while senior Kelly Hoffman finished with four kills for the Lady Raiders.

Pinecrest defeated the Lady Raiders in all three regular season meetings last year, 3-1 in each regular season meeting and 3-0 in the championship game of the Sandhills Athletic Conference tournament. The Lady Patriots are the defending SAC champions and made it to the third round of last year’s 4A state playoffs.

Richmond has a short turnaround, with back-to-back games coming up on Monday and Tuesday. They’ll use practice Friday to prepare for those games against Jack Britt and Hoke County Larsen said, as well as work on some things.

“We need to be a little bit smarter finding the open spots when we’re all up at the net and we do get a good set,” she said. “The problem is you can play with the same girls at practice every day, but when you see an opponent who has a little different serving style or something else, it’s a little harder to adjust to so quick. But, hopefully we can turn this around and get back in the win column.”

JV narrowly misses out on win

The junior varsity Lady Raiders had their chances to close out Pinecrest in the second set, but weren’t able to capitalize, and it ended up costing them, as they fell 2-1 in three tight sets.

After Richmond took a 16-11 lead in the first set, Pinecrest responded with a 10-0 run to take a 21-16 lead. However, the Lady Raiders then answered with a 10-3 run of their own on the serve of sophomore Joy Styles to take the first set 26-24.

Pinecrest seized control in the pivotal second set, eventually building a 23-16 lead, but the JV Lady Raiders weren’t done yet. An 8-0 run on the serve of freshman Allie Rodgers and highlighted by a key block at the net by Katie Way, allowed Richmond to take the lead 24-23.

The JV Lady Raiders were unable to capitalize on several match points, as the two teams largely exchanged points until Pinecrest managed to pull out the set 29-27.

Finally, in the tiebreaker third set, the JV Lady Patriots made Richmond pay for not closing it out in the second set, winning the set 15-13 to take the match.