Lady Scots volleyball get back on track with sweep of St. Pauls

LAURINBURG —The Lady Scots volleyball team bounced back from their first loss of the season suffered at the hands of Union Pines on the road Tuesday night with a 3-0 sweep over the St. Pauls Bulldogs on Thursday night at Scotland High School. The Scots improve to 8-1 overall (1-1 in conference play) with the win while St. Pauls falls to 1-8 with the loss. Head Coach Adam Romaine while admitting they didn’t play their best, was still happy with his team getting back in the win column as they look to move forward and learn from the tough loss at Union Pines.

“We played a little flat coming off that game, we put a lot of energy into it,” Romaine said. “I’m still happy with the outcome tonight, I told them that game is not deciding our season.”

The first set saw Scotland struggle early but eventually get the necessary momentum to win the set convincingly. After being knotted in a 4-4 tie, the Scots went on a 9-4 surge that put them up 13-8. After leading 17-13, they would close the set strong by scoring six in a row and eight of the set’s final nine points to take the set 25-14.

The next set was one the Scots controlled from the very beginning but had to fight off a ferocious St. Pauls rally and limped to the finish line. After the Bulldogs got the set’s first point, Scotland got the next 10. That big of a deficit would normally rattle a team but St. Pauls never went away. After the Scots seemingly had things under control at 23-16, the Bulldogs managed to get the deficit all the way down to one at 24-23 but the Scots still got the next point to take the set by the skin of their teeth 25-23.

The final set of the night saw the Scots start slow but go on a run to take the lead for good. After trailing 3-1, Scotland went on a 6-2 run that put them up 7-5. They would then score seven in a row to firmly take control at 14-5. Unlike the second set, they didn’t make closing the set out hard on themselves as St. Pauls never seriously threatened Scotland again. The Scots would take the set 25-15 to complete the sweep, their second over the Bulldogs in eight days after outscoring them 75-33 over three sets last week.

Due to managing some health and injury problems with Addison Johnson and Ramsey Hale, Romaine had to spread out playing time a little more than he normally would. This is something he said may have played a factor in their second set struggles but made the message clear heading into the last set: let’s be better.

“Addi had some strept throat and Ramsey had to rest her knee a little bit so we had a few girls playing in some different roles,” Romaine said. “They got a little timid at times without the more vocal girls out there but going into the third set I just told them let’s play better this time.”

Molly Gallagher led the Scots in kills with 12 with Addison Johnson, who also had two blocks, contributing nine kills of her own. Ramsey Hale had four blocks to lead Scotland while Zoey Bowman and Jordyn Walker had three digs apiece.

Scotland will have the weekend off before having three games over three days from Tuesday to Thursday next week. They will have conference matchups on Tuesday at Pinecrest and at home against Lee County on Thursday with a non-conference game against Pine Forest on Wednesday sandwiched between. This stretch is one Romaine thinks will tell a lot about what his team is made of and how much they learned from the setback suffered last week.

“Lee County upset Union Pines so they’re nobody to sleep on and we can’t take them lightly,” Romaine said. “I set up Pine Forest because they’re a strong 4A program; them and Pinecrest will be two similar style games, I’m looking forward to next week.”