The Rockbridge County High School volleyball team split a pair of 3-0 Shenandoah District matches last week, defeating Riverheads and falling to Fort Defiance, and dropped a nondistrict match against Turner Ashby, 3-1.
In the match against Riverheads (3-11 overall, 0-11 district), the Wildcats (7-8, 5-6) earned a 25-12, 25-21, 25-18 home win on Tuesday of last week in Lexington. With the victory, the Wildcats completed a sweep of the season series with the Gladiators. 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. McKemy had returned to action the night before after being out sick five days.
Relieved to have McKemy back so that the Wildcats didn’t have to move other players to the setter position, as they had done in their 3-1 home loss to district rival Wilson Memorial the previous Thursday, RC head coach Gabe Wagner said, “We were able to run our true lineup, which was good. It was a good group effort. I thought we found energy, and we found confidence at times, despite having to come back. They played well. They played together. It was fun.”
Also stepping up for the Wildcats was Hayley Higgins, who 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.
Praising the Gladiators for challenging his team as the match went on, Wagner said, “They’re a scrappy team. They played well.”
“No quit in that team,” added Wagner, pointing out that Riverheads kept playing hard after dropping a lopsided first set. “Not a lot of teams could push the way they did after a set loss like that, so I give them a lot of credit there. They just fought hard, kept a lot of balls up.”
TA 3, RC 1
On Monday of last week, the Wildcats suffered a 3-1 home loss to Turner Ashby. With the 25-15, 25-19, 22-25, 25-17 victory, the Knights (13-4) finished a sweep of the regular-season series with RC. A week earlier, TA had beaten the Wildcats 3-1 in Bridgewater.
In the rematch, McCormick and Beidle led RC with eight kills each, while Beidle recorded eight digs and four aces, McCormick had three blocks. McKemy paced RC with 24 assists, while Crocker had a team-high 23 digs. Also contributing were Hamilton with 17 digs and six kills and Higgins with nine digs.
Giving credit to the Knights, led by 6-foot Sarah Hairston, Wagner said, “TA’s a very well-coached team. They’ve got some good hitters.”
FD 3, RC 0
The Wildcats concluded the week with a 3-0 road loss to undefeated Fort Defiance (17-0, 11-0) on Thursday.
With the 25-13, 25-17, 25-22 victory, the Indians completed a sweep of the regular-season series with RC. When the teams met on Sept. 9 in Lexington, Fort eked out a 3-2 win.
Hamilton led the Wildcats with five kills and collected seven digs, while Mc-Cormick added four kills and two aces. Crocker paced RC with 10 digs, Higgins recorded seven digs and two aces, and Adrianna Grue had seven digs. McKemy led the Wildcats with 16 assists, while Johnson added three kills and a block, and Duff had a block.
Maecy Ann Frizzelle, a Bridgewater College commit, guided the Indians, recording 13 kills, seven digs and five aces. Also stepping up was Caroline Hanger with seven kills, 18 digs and four aces. Alexis Miller led Fort with 24 assists and added seven digs and five kills, Norah Anderson had four kills and seven digs, and Livia Clinedinst chipped in three kills and two blocks.
Reviewing the match, Wagner said, “Fort is a great team that was able to control serve and serve receive in our match against each other. They played very clean volleyball and were able to put the ball down more efficiently than us. We played a great match against them [on Sept. 9], where we played some great volleyball. Losing that tough of a match took the wind out of our sails a bit, and we are still trying to find our rhythm and fight again. I wish Fort luck and expect to see them have a long postseason run.”
The Wildcats were scheduled to play host to Waynesboro last night and will continue district action at Alleghany on Thursday before playing host to Stuarts Draft on Tuesday, starting with junior varsity action at 6 p.m. on both nights.
