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Wildcats Show Progress Against Alleghany, Fort
The Rockbridge County High County High School fell to 0-4 last week, suffering a 3-0 home loss to Alleghany last Wednesday before coming up short 3-1 at Fort Defiance on Thursday.
Showing improvement in their first home match of the season, the Wildcats battled through long rallies against Alleghany, but the Cougars (5-0) earned a 25-16, 25-22, 25-17 win.
The Wildcats led several times in the second and third sets. However, Alleghany pulled away both times.
With the victory, the Cougars completed a sweep of the regular-season series, following a 3-0 win over the Wildcats in Covington the previous Thursday.
The Cougars jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first set, and the Wildcats cut it to 10-9, but Alleghany stayed ahead and finished strong.
The second set was a back-and-forth battle, with several lead changes before Alleghany finished strong following a couple of RC errors.
Alleghany led 12-10 in the third set before the Wildcats went on a 4-0 run, fueled by two aces from Geneva Snyder and a kill from Jada Hamilton that put RC up 14-12. The lead wouldn’t last long, as the Cougars used strong serving and net play to go on a 5-0 run and stayed ahead the rest of the match.
After the match, one of the referees told RC head coach Gabe Wagner, “You all are so much better than you were a week ago.”
Hamilton led the Wildcats with seven kills and had nine digs, while Snyder paced RC with three aces, four kills and eight digs. Maisen Mckemy dished out a teamhigh 14 assists and recorded 11 digs and three blocks, while Ava Crocker led RC with 19 digs. Also stepping up were Mackenzie McCormick with a team-high four blocks to go along with three digs, while Bekah Allen added 14 digs.
The first-year RC coach explained the areas where the Wildcats improved. “What I purposely have been focusing on, engineering our drills to work on, is siding out [winning on the opponent’s serve],” said Wagner, who estimated that the Wildcats were up about 12 percent in siding out from the previous week. “That’s where our biggest struggle is. I think naturally, we’re a strong serving team, but naturally we’re not a siding out team. We’ve been working on that, and I think we saw that.”
Wagner was also pleased with his team’s improved passing, especially by Allen, RC’s libero. Wagner said Allen “was just incredible tonight passing. It was fun to watch.”
The RC coach said the Cougars were tough because “they run a very fast set to the outside, which is unique. That’s something I thought we actually worked with well. Every team’s gonna get their kills.”
FD 3, RC 1
The Wildcats bounced back from an early deficit at Fort Defiance on Thursday, but the Indians (8-1) held on for a 25-21, 18-25, 25-12, 25-23 win.
“The girls showed a lot of fight and resilience against a good Fort Defiance team,” said Wagner, who noted that the Wildcats tested the Indians after trailing 19-11 in the final set. He said the comeback to narrowly lose 25-23 “is pretty remarkable and shows grit and competitiveness that will lead to success.”
Hamilton led the Wildcats with 12 kills and recorded 22 digs, while Allen had a team-high 24 digs, and Mckemy dished out 26 assists to lead RC. Snyder registered 10 kills, McCormick added six kills, and Crocker collected 15 digs.
RC was scheduled to play host to Parry McCluer on Monday before starting Valley District action at Broadway last night. The Wildcats will continue district play at home against East Rockingham on Thursday before traveling to Harrisonburg on Tuesday, starting with junior varsity action at 5:30 p.m. on both nights.
Optimistic about what’s ahead for the Wildcats, Wagner said, “There’s a lot to work on as a team, but, from an attitude and belief perspective, we are well on our way to developing into a great team.”
