The Rockbridge County High School volleyball team evened up its record by earning a 3-0 home win over Shenandoah District rival Riverheads on Tuesday night in Lexington.
With the 25-12, 25-21, 25-18 victory, the Wildcats (7-7 overall, 5-5 district) bounced back from a 3-1 home loss to Turner Ashby (12-4) on Monday and completed a sweep of the season series with the Gladiators (3-10, 0-10). When the teams met on Sept. 4 at Riverheads, RC also won 3-0.
In the rematch, the Wildcats trailed 4-1 in the first set, but used strong serving and net play to go on a 14-2 run, taking a 15-6 lead. RC increased its lead to double digits and pulled away.
Carrying the momentum into the second set, the Wildcats raced to a 7-0 lead on Maisen McKemy’s serve. Riverheads battled back to eventually take a 17-15 lead, but the Wildcats finished strong, with two kills from Cesi Beidle and an ace from Hayley Higgins to put the set away.
The third set was a back-and-forth battle until the Wildcats broke a 12-12 tie and went on a 4-0 run. The Gladiators battled back again, taking an 18-17 lead, but the Wildcats won the final eight points, four aces from Beidle and three kills from Mackenzie McCormick during that stretch.
Beidle led all players with nine kills and five aces, while Jada Hamilton had five aces and 11 digs. Maisen McKemy dished out a match-high 20 assists and recorded seven digs, while Hayley Higgins led all players with 14 digs. Other RC leaders were Emma Johnson with seven kills, Emmy Duff with five kills, Ava Crocker with 11 digs and Braelyn Polly with seven digs.
Leading Riverheads were Meleah Shirley with four kills, Emily Herndon with eight digs, and Abi Bennington with three aces.
The Wildcats will continue district action at Fort Defiance on Thursday, starting with the junior varsity match at 6 p.m.
For the full story on this week’s action, with photos from Monday’s match, please see our Oct. 15 newspaper. The story and photos from last week’s action will be in this Wednesday’s newspaper.
