The Lady Cougars volleyball team hosted Three Rivers District rival Radford on October 8. When the match was over, it was Radford that would return home with a 3-1 win, 25-21, 18-25, 16-25, 22-25.
Patrick County got off to a fast start taking an early 5-1 lead in the first set. Behind good hitting and excellent play at the net, the Lady Cougars would never trail in the set. Radford closed the gap to just two points, but the Lady Cougars would close out the set 25-21.
The second set stayed close early. With the match tied at six apiece, Radford grabbed momentum, going on a 7-2 run and taking the lead 8-15. Radford would add a 5-0 run later in the set to take a nine-point lead at 13-22 and would hold off the Lady Cougars and win the set 18-25.
Radford carried over their momentum into the third set, forcing a Lady Cougar time out at 5-11. Radford’s serving kept the Lady Cougars off balance throughout the third and would take the set 16-25.
“They’re a good serving team,” said Lady Cougar head coach Heidi Moore. “They were very good at picking out where they were going to serve the ball to keep us uncomfortable
The Lady Cougars came out strong in the fourth set, taking the first four points before Radford tied the set at 6 apiece. The two teams would trade points, remaining tied at 11-11 before the Lady Cougars forced a Radford time out at 14-11. Coming out of the timeout, Radford chipped away at the Lady Cougar lead, closing the gap at 18-17. Radford tied the match following a long delay while the officials decided on the correct call of the point. Following the stoppage of play, Radford would finish the match on a 7-4 run, taking the set 22-25.
On the night, Moore said “we struggled more on passing and we went away from our gameplan, but I believe that’s my fault, because I said make sure that we use other hitters, because when we used our middles, we were unstoppable. We took too long to switch back.”
Overall, Moore thought there was much to like in her team’s performance. “We did a lot of good things. We clean it up, we can compete.”
Lilly Hazelwood led the Lady Cougars with 9 kills, 6 blocks and 4 aces. Jayden Callahan added 8 kills, and 3 blocks and Eliza Clifton had 7 kills, 14 digs and 8 assists.
Journey Moore had 14 digs and 5 assists while Camille Gonzalez had 14 assists and 3 kills.
