Richmond volleyball suffers first loss at Harnett Central

ANGIER, N.C. — Some last-minute lineup changes impacted the Richmond Senior High School volleyball team Tuesday.

The Lady Raiders weren’t able to follow up their season-opening win and suffered their first loss of the new campaign.

Playing on the road at Harnett Central High School, Richmond lost 3-1.

“We hung pretty close with them,” head coach Ashleigh Larsen said. “Moving the game an hour later than our normal starting time and having games two nights in a row was tough. Leianna (Brooks) wasn’t able to play today due to illness, so we saw another lineup tonight.

“The girls played coherently for throwing them all out on the court. Madisen (Jackson) moved to the middle tonight, Kaylan (Parsons) went to the outside and Carleigh (Gibson) moved to the right side.

“All in all, I thought the girls played pretty well,” she closed. “Some little mistakes cost us and some non-calls by the officials on the net and some lifts were debatable. Despite the loss, they came out strong and did everything we asked them to do. Hopefully moving into (Wednesday), we can adjust and then finally get some practice to work on some things we need to do.”

The Lady Raiders (1-1) will close out their first week of action and play their third match in as many nights Wednesday.

Visiting Richmond will be non-conference Pine Forest High School (0-0), beginning at 6 p.m.

Sports editor’s note: The Richmond junior varsity volleyball team (1-0) didn’t play Tuesday. The JV Lady Raiders will play Pine Forest at home Wednesday at 5 p.m.