SANFORD —The Lady Scots volleyball team defeated conference rival Lee County on the road Tuesday night three sets to two. Scotland improves to 16-5 (7-4 in conference games) on the season with the victory while the Yellow Jackets fall to 11-8 on the season (4-7 vs other SAC teams) with the loss. It was the second win for the Scots over Lee County this season, having also beaten them in a 3-0 sweep on their home floor back on Sept. 12.
Scotland took the first, third and fifth sets by scores of 25-16, 25-14 and 15-8 while the Yellow Jackets took the second and fourth sets by scores of 25-20 and 25-22. Senior Addison Johnson was a stat sheet stuffer for the Scots with 22 kills, 12 digs and seven aces, which was the most on the team in all three statistics. Reagan Malpass also dished out 29 assists while Ramsey Hale had 10 blocks to lead the team in those areas.
Scotland was playing without freshman Nora Teasley due to a knee injury, leading to more playing time for Riley Fedak (who had four blocks in the game). Head Coach Adam Romaine noted Fedak’s play as a real positive but is aware of the improvements needed moving forward, especially if Teasley’s injury will keep her out for an extended period of time.
“Having Nora out this week with a knee injury I was a little concerned about some chemistry issues and just her presence on the net against other teams but Riley with game experience stepped in and played big for us at times,” Romaine said. “We did have some chemistry issues that messed with us mentally, but we also played sloppy and gave some unwanted points away that gave Lee County a chance to keep it close and take two sets. We’re going to have to continue to work on these things and get better with not knowing if we will have Nora back for the rest of the season or not.”
Scotland will have Wednesday off before returning home for their regular season finale on Thursday night against archrival Richmond. Senior night will begin at 6:15 p.m. The Scots previously defeated Richmond on the road in a sweep back on Sept. 17.
Cross Country competes in Laurinburg
The Scots competed with three other conference teams on Tuesday night: Lee County, Southern Lee and Union Pines. They had four boys representatives and three girls competitors. Union Pines and Southern Lee were the only teams listed on the final team scores, finishing in first and second respectively for both the boys and girls.
The highest placed boys finisher for the Scots was senior Gabe Jacquez, who finished the 5,000-meter run in 22:35, good enough for a 17th place finish. Tanay Sanderson, Ozzy Tyson and Bryson Graves were the other three Scotland representatives for the boys, finishing in 24th (time of 25:42), 25th (26:27) and 32nd (39:50), respectively.
On the girl’s side, senior Chloe Ganus placed fifth overall with a time of 23:23. Seniors Caydence Deese and Isabella Trujillo finished in 26th and 28th with times of 31:56 and 32:23.
The SAC Conference Championship will be next Tuesday, Oct. 15. It will take place at the James L. Morgan Recreation Complex in Laurinburg. All of the meet information can be found here: SAC XC Conference Championship 2024 – Meet Information (milesplit.com).