The James River girls beat Roanoke Catholic in three sets Monday night to remain unbeaten in volleyball. The Knights improved to 5-0 with a 25-13, 25-12 and 25-11 win.
“It was a slower night,” said River coach Linsey Firebaugh. “We were just working on serving aggressively and swinging aggressively.”
Sydnee Breeding and Ashby Wilkes both had six kills and two aces in the win.
Last Wednesday in Bedford the Knights beat host Liberty in four sets. The Minutewomen edged River in the first set, 25-23, but the Knights rallied to win the next three by scores of 25-17, 25-13 and 25-7.
Breeding had seven aces and seven kills in this one and Wilkes had nine kills and 13 digs. Also making a big contribution to the win were Leanna Steger with nine kills and four aces, Ayden Jennings with 22 assists and Chloe Helmandollar with 14 digs.
“We started out slowly, however after the first set we played some really good volleyball,” said Firebaugh. “Leanna came to play. She was serving well and hitting well. Overall, I am proud of this team being able to fight through a rough night.”
Photos by Leigh Downey
A night later in Bassett the girls won a thriller in five sets. They fell behind in the first set again, 25-13, but won the next two, 25-19 and 25-16. The Bengals then won the fourth, 25-16, to tie the match at two sets each but the Knights hammered out a 17-15 win in the deciding set to return to Springwood with a big victory.
“We are struggling starting out as well as we finish,” said Firebaugh. “The first set was rough for us. We made a lot of mistakes. We finally woke up and started to play good volleyball. We began to limit errors and just play loose. We went to a fifth set and started out slow, but with some serving runs from Leanna and some timely kills from Ashby we were able to pull ahead and win the game.”
Wilkes finished with 21 kills and 15 digs and Helmandollar had 22 digs. Steger and Breeding had six aces each and Sydnee also had 10 kills. Jennings dished out 25 assists.
The Knights were scheduled to put their unbeaten record on the line Tuesday when they hosted Radford for their Three Rivers District opener. Next Monday, September 15, they return the trip to Roanoke Catholic.
