Avenging last month's five-set loss, the Rockbridge County High School volleyball team earned a 3-1 home win over Shenandoah District rival Waynesboro on Thursday night in Lexington.
The Wildcats (8-8 overall, 6-6 district) fended off a late rally from the Little Giants (8-10, 6-6) to secure the 25-18, 22-25, 25-14, 25-22 victory. When the teams met on Sept. 11, Waynesboro defeated the visiting Wildcats 3-2.
RC started slowly in the rematch, trailing 4-0 in the first set, but the Wildcats battled back to take an 8-7 lead and would not trail again in the set.
In the second set, Waynesboro got ahead early and stayed in front with strong serving and net play.
The Wildcats bounced back in the third set, playing aggressively and gradually building up a double-digit lead. RCs Mackenzie McCormick ended the set with a kill.
RC led for nearly the entire fourth set, but the Little Giants battled back from a 22-17 deficit to cut the Wildcats’ lead to one. After taking a timeout, the Wildcats regrouped and finished off the Little Giants, with a Waynesboro error, a kill from Emma Johnson, and an emphatic kill from McCormick to end the match.
The Wildcats had a strong serving game, with 13 aces, led by McCormick with four, Jada Hamilton and Cesi Beidle with three each, and Hayley Higgins with two.
Hamilton and McCormick led RC with 13 kills each, while Beidle had 10 kills and nine digs. Hamilton also had 21 digs. Maisen McKemy dished out 37 assists to lead the Wildcats and recorded 10 digs, while Ava Crocker collected a team-high 26 digs. Higgins added nine digs, and McCormick had five. Also contributing were Emmy Duff with six kills and Emma Johnson with three.
The Wildcats will continue district action at Alleghany on Thursday, starting with junior varsity action at 6 p.m.
For the full story on this week’s matches, with photos from Tuesday’s match, please see our Oct. 22 newspaper. The story and photos from last week’s action will be in this Wednesday’s newspaper.
