The Shadow
Good serving and solid floor play helped lift the James River Knights volleyball team past the Alleghany Mountaineers Thursday night at Mountaineer Gym.
The Lady Knights dispatched the Mounties 25-14, 24-22, 25-17 to get their season started off on the right foot.
It was the third match in four days for the Lady Mountaineers, who finished the week 1-2.
Alleghany opened the season Monday with an exciting five-set win over Parry McCluer and then went on the road Tuesday to Bath County and lost in three sets to the reigning Region C champions.
In Thursday’s match, it was the Knights’ serve that proved to be the difference.
“They have some very good servers and we just could not get any momentum going tonight,” said Alleghany coach Jackie Almarode.
Laura Peterson staked Alleghany to an early 3-2 lead in the first set, but James River’s Taylor Statome was able to knot the score at four and the Knights continued to pour it on, eventually building an 12-5 lead.
A kill from Laura Peterson made the score 18-8 late in the first set, but the lead was too much as the Knights easily took the first set 25-14.
Brittany Reed reeled off four straight points to open the second set and give Alleghany an early 4-1 lead.
River was able to battle back and knot the set at five, but Maegan Walton added a kill to put the Mountaineers back on top.
James River took a brief 9-8 lead until a Walton stuff block made it 9-9.
The set was knotted at 14 before Peterson ripped off two consecutive aces and Mindy Gillispie added a kill to give Alleghany a 16-14 lead.
Once again, the Knights battled back and knotted the set at 17 before taking a 19-18 lead.
Two aces from Gillispie knotted the score at 20 and an ace from Eli McCutchen knotted the set at 22.
But two James River serving aces over the next three points propelled the Knights to the second set victory and gave them a 2-0 lead heading into the third set.
The Lady Mounties once again jumped out to an early lead in the third set only to see their lead quickly evaporate.
Peterson gave Alleghany an early 3-1 lead with three straight service points.
But the Knights quickly knotted the set at five and then took an 8-6 lead they would never relinquish.
River led by as much as 19-12 late in the set, but Alleghany’s Kristen Rose recorded an ace and Gillispie added a kill to bring the Lady Mounties to within five (19-14).
Alleghany kept it to within five, but that would be as close as they would get as River would hold on for their season-opening victory.
Peterson led the Mountaineers with 13 points and three kills.
Gillispie and Rose added eight points each with Gillispie adding two kills.
Walton finished with seven points, while McCutchen and Reed had five points each and Casstevens chipped in four. Kayla Buchanan and Erin Durham rounded out the AHS scoring with one point each.
Alleghany (1-2) hopes their luck against Pioneer District school changes as they hit the road Monday to take on rival Covington.
The Knights made it a sweep of the Mountaineers with a 25-21, 25-23 win over the Alleghany jayvees.
A.J. Keith converted eight-of-nine sets, while Katie Holestin converted three-of-four.
Olivia Smith contributed two blocks and was a perfect six-for-six on serve attempts.
