A valiant effort by the Rockbridge County High School volleyball team came up short on Thursday night, as the Wildcats suffered a 3-1 home loss to Shenandoah District rival Alleghany in Lexington.
Coming off 3-0 wins over Parry McCluer on Monday and at district rival Waynesboro on Tuesday, the Wildcats (3-6 overall, 1-5 district) showed their resilience, winning the third set after dropping the first two, but Alleghany (9-1, 3-1) finished strong to earn a 25-19, 25-19, 20-25, 25-16 victory.
The first set was a back-and-forth battle, but the Cougars pulled away from a 10-10 tie and held a small lead for the rest of the frame, powered by kills from Ava Lewis.
In the second set, Alleghany jumped out to a 5-1 lead and capitalized on RC errors, leading by as many as eight points (18-10). Cesi Beidle made several of her team-high 15 kills to help the Wildcats trim the lead to four before Alleghany put the set away.
Strong net play by Beidle, Geneva Snyder, Emerson Duff and other Wildcats helped RC take a 22-14 lead in the third set, and they fended off an Alleghany comeback to extend the match.
Alleghany came out on fire in the fourth set, racing to a 5-0 lead. After calling a timeout, the Wildcats got some points on the board, but the Cougars attacked the net and stayed comfortably ahead the rest of the way.
Other than Beidle, who had 12 digs and two aces, RC’s leaders were Snyder with 13 kills, 16 digs and two aces; freshman Eden Camden with 25 assists, Adrianna Grue with 19 digs and Braelyn Polly with 14 digs.
Ally Cottrell paced the Cougars with 19 kills, 13 digs and three aces, Ava Lewis notched 14 kills. Kenda Dressler led Alleghany with 44 assists and added 10 digs and a match-high four aces, while Madison Lowry collected 19 digs.
After three matches in four days, the Wildcats will play just once next week when they travel to district rival Stuarts Draft on Tuesday, starting with junior varsity action at 5:30 p.m.
For the stories on this week’s action, with photos from the Wildcats’ home win over PM on Monday, please see our Sept. 23 newspaper.
