Earning its first Shenandoah District victory of the season, the Rockbridge County High School volleyball team won 3-0 at Waynesboro on Tuesday of last week before falling 3-1 at home against district rival Alleghany on Thursday.
It was a busy week for the Wildcats, with three matches in four days, starting with a 3-0 home win over local rival Parry McCluer on Monday of last week. (See separate story.) RC ended the week with a record of 3-6 overall and a district record of 1-5.
Against Waynesboro (1-10 overall, 0-5 district), the Wildcats started strong and survived a late challenge from the Lady Giants to capture a 25-9, 25-13, 25-20 victory.
RC head coach Graceon Whitesell said the win “was immaculate. The girls played with extreme heart and kept their foot on the gas [with] very much a winner’s mentality.”
In the first set, RC’s Cesi Beidle served from the eighth point to the 24th point, helping the Wildcats go on a 16-0 run. “That was just an amazing shift of momentum, and [our players] just really capitalized when they could.”
Geneva Snyder led the Wildcats with 11 kills and collected nine digs, while Beidle added nine kills, six digs and a team-high five aces. Eden Camden paced RC with 21 assists and had nine digs, while Addison Clements recorded nine digs, and Braelyn Polly and Adrianna Grue each collected five digs. Emerson Duff served up four aces, and Addyson Pennington led the Wildcats with four blocks.
Leading the Lady Giants was Ava Buckmaster with 16 digs and five kills, while Quinn Shoonover added seven digs, four assists and three aces. Morgan Harlow dished out seven assists and had three aces, while Dylan Coffey chipped in seven digs.
AHS 3, RC 1
A valiant effort by the Wildcats came up short on Thursday night, as RC suffered a 3-1 home loss to district rival Alleghany in Lexington.
The Wildcats 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). 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, Snyder, 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.
Proud of her team’s effort, Whitesell said, “I think that they played super hard. They did a very good job of accomplishing the goals that we had set. We just made too many errors at moments when we needed to capitalize and we didn’t.”
“We kept our run going,” added Whitesell. “We just adjusted to [the Cougars] a little bit too late. Hopefully, when we go down there [at Alleghany on Oct. 20], it’s a different story.”
Whitesell said the Cougars were tough because of “their speed of play… That’s just something for us to get better with. With two games this week that were against slower teams, it just takes a minute to adjust to that.”
Other than Beidle, who had 12 digs and two aces, RC’s leaders were Snyder with 13 kills, 16 digs and two aces; Camden with 25 assists, Grue with 19 digs and Polly with 14 digs.
Whitesell said the Wildcats’ back row defense, led by Grue and Polly, “played phenomenally well tonight. They gave all that they had.”
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 matchhigh four aces, while Madison Lowry collected 19 digs.
The Wildcats were scheduled to play just once this week, last night at Stuarts Draft, and will continue district action when they play host to Staunton on Tuesday, starting with junior varsity action at 6 p.m.
