Scotland volleyball sweeps South View in season opener

LAURINBURG —The Fighting Scots volleyball program officially kicked off the fall sports season at Scotland High School on Tuesday night with a matchup against the South View Tigers. It ended up being a great start to the 2024-25 athletic year with Scotland winning in a sweep three sets to none. Head Coach Adam Romaine was glad to start the season off on the right foot, especially after being swept by West Brunswick in their season opener last year.

“It was a big win for the girls to get the first game jitters out of the way,” Romaine said. “We’re still learning the 5-1 and working on some chemistry things but I’m happy with the win and how we played today.”

The first set was initially a tightly contested affair until one big run by the Scots made the difference. Trailing 5-4, Scotland went on a monster 11-3 run to grab a 15-7 lead. That is momentum they never relinquished on their way to a 25-15 victory in the first set.

The second set was tightly contested throughout. The Fighting Scots seemed to have momentum which was pulled away when South View tied the set at 12. After Romaine called a timeout, Scotland responded in a major way with four points in a row and seven of the next nine.

Even with the Tigers giving them a scare by getting within two at 19-17 and 20-18, the Scots never panicked and won 25-19. Romaine said the timeout was called to discuss communication issues and serving errors that seemed to be a problem.

“They weren’t communicating and were relying on two girls to call most of the hits,” Romaine said. “I just told them to be aggressive, want the ball and reduce our serving errors because that had us in a hole a little bit.”

The third and final set saw Scotland jump out to a 5-1 advantage but the Tigers never gave up, nabbing three in a row and six of the next seven to grab a 7-6 lead of their own. The set remained very close after that with neither team pulling away and continuing to engage in a back-and-forth affair throughout.

In the end, the Scots finished the set strong with three of the final four points to win 25-23. Romaine was pleased with how they finished and to avoid playing any more sets against a dangerous South View team playing with nothing to lose.

“A team like that was happy about every point whether they earned it or didn’t get it,” Romaine said. “You don’t want to drop a set against a team like that who’s real hungry because of the mistakes we’re making.”

Senior Addison Johnson had a strong game for Scotland, leading the team in kills with 22 while also contributing seven digs. Molly Gallagher contributed 13 kills and four digs of her own.

Romaine pointed out senior Reagan Malpass as someone he was especially impressed with as she ended up taking several balls that otherwise would’ve cost the team points. She had a team-leading eight digs.

The Scots have a short turnaround as they host Terry Sanford on Thursday night at 6:15 p.m. Scotland swept them three sets to none in their lone meeting last year. The rematch with South View will be next Tuesday, Aug. 20 on the Tigers’ home floor.