RC Netters Defeat Riverheads, Fall To WM
The Rockbridge County High School volleyball team split a pair of Shenandoah District matches last week, falling 3-0 at Wilson Memorial last Tuesday before earning a 3-1 home win over Riverheads on Thursday.
With an impressive finish on Thursday, the Wildcats (7-7 overall, 5-6) broke away from a 7-4 lead in the fourth and final set by going on a 15-0 run, scoring 14 points in a row on Cesi Beidle’s serve to complete the 25-19, 23-25, 25-18, 25-6 victory over Riverheads (8-7, 4-6) With the win, the Wildcats avenged a 3-0 road loss to Riverheads from Sept. 8.
Pleased with her team’s finish in the rematch, RC head coach Graceon Whitesell said, “Something that we talk about all the time is just making sure that we push the tempo. When we have the momentum on our side, we need to make sure that we are keeping the momentum on our side, and we definitely did a good job of maintaining that goal and just continuing to push and shut that door.”
After the Wildcats honored their teachers on their first-ever Teacher Appreciation Night, RC overcame a 9-5 deficit to take the first set, with Beidle making four of her team-high 21 kills later in the set. The second set was a back-and-forth battle and was tied 23-23 before the Gladiators put it away on a Chesney Dunlap kill and an RC error.
The Wildcats pulled away from a close third set and carried the momentum into the fourth set to pull out the win.
“It was nice to get a win at home, especially on the week of homecoming and Teacher Appreciation Night, so it was nice for our faculty and staff to see what our student-athletes work so hard to do when they’re not at school,” said Whitesell, who was recognized as a business teacher before the match.
Beidle led RC with five aces and had 15 digs, while Geneva Snyder recorded 10 kills, 18 digs and four aces. Eden Camden paced the Wildcats with 35 assists, while Adrianna Grue collected a team-high 27 digs. Other RC leaders were Braelyn Polly with 11 digs and Emerson Duff with four kills and three digs.
Chesney paced Riverheads with nine kills and had 11 assists and eight digs, while Emily Herndon had a team-high 18 digs, and Abi Bennington added seven digs. Meleah Shirley chipped in nine kills and eight digs.
Whitesell said the extra number of fans who came out to honor the teachers and watch volleyball had a positive impact on her team. “The energy in the gym was great tonight,” she said. “It was definitely on our side. Our fans do a great job of making sure that we are feeling really good when we are having a good run. I’m very thankful for our crowd and our fans tonight. They definitely helped us out.”
WM 3, RC 0
Wilson Memorial cruised to a 25-7, 25-19, 25-16 win over the Wildcats on Tuesday of last week in Fishersville.
With the victory, the Green Hornets (12-2 overall, 10-1 district) completed a sweep of the season series with the Wildcats. When the teams met on Sept. 3 in Lexington, WM also won 3-0.
Snyder led the Wildcats with five kills and 11 digs, while Beidle had four kills and six digs. Emmilyn Kelly paced RC with seven assists, while Camden dished out six assists. Grue led RC with three aces and had nine digs, while Polly collected nine digs.
Estee Irving led WM with 10 kills, Maggie Parrott had seven kills and four blocks, while Maddie Lawhorn added seven kills and seven digs. Bree Kindig paced WM with 17 digs, Natalee Chandler had a team-high 16 assists, and Miya Chandler had 13 digs.
The Wildcats were scheduled to play at Fort Defiance last night and will continue district action at home against Waynesboro on Thursday before playing at Alleghany on Tuesday. The Wildcats will play their final home opponent of the regular season next Thursday, Oct. 22, when they face Stuarts Draft. Before the match, the Wildcats will honor their seven seniors. All three nights will start with junior varsity action at 6 p.m.
