Midway’s Lady Raiders defended their home turf against a hungry bunch of Wildcats Tuesday night, winning both the JV and varsity cross-county matches.
The JV got the sweep, defeating the younger Hobbton girls 25-13; 25-16.
The varsity had it a little more difficult, with the game going four sets, with Midway winning 3-1 — 25-17; 25-21; 21-25; 25-20.
Although both her teams got wins, Raider coach Heather Johnson said she still wanted to see more communication from her girls.
The JV, she said, still needed to improve.
“Overall, they played OK, but we’ve got to get better … there’s always room for improvement. In fact, we need to improve every game, all teams do,” Johnson said.
For Midway’s JV, Hannah Hubbard had 3 kills; Savannah Spell, 3 kills; Amber Poole, 2 assists; Taylor Fann, 2 assists; Emily Wrench, 2 assists; and Brittany Watson, 4 aces.
Hobbton coach Russell Jones said his younger team’s biggest problem was the serve.
“They’re getting a little better with each game, but the serve hurts us. Midway would get 2 or 3 and we’d get 1 or 2. By the end of the games, that counts up.”
Individually for the JV Wildcats, Melissa Gallegos had 1 kill and 3 assists; Samantha Monk, 1 kill; Kaley Matthews, 2 kills, 1 assist; Reece Holland, 2 kills; Haley Martinez, 2 aces; Taylor Aman, 1 ace, 1 kill and 1 assist.
Jones tipped his hat to both Midway’s teams, saying they played well.
Johnson said while her varsity Raiders still had problems communicating, she thought they had a good night against the Wildcats.
“They played pretty good tonight (Tuesday),” Johnson said. “We are still struggling with the communication we need, and I would really like to see them play with more emotion than they are playing with right now. But they’re getting there.”
She praised the play of Rachel Pope, particularly, saying the Lady Raider did a good job serving Tuesday. She had 3 aces and 3 kills and, during the last set, had 8 straight service points.
For the varsity Raiders, Harley Bass had 5 kills, 1 ace, and 5 blocks; Jennifer Blackmon, 3 kills; Jada Cannady, 4 kills, 3 aces, 1 block; Farrah Jackson, 3 kills; Kaitlyn Jackson, 9 assists; Elizabeth McCullen, 5 assists, 4 aces; Cassid Strickland, 3 assists, 2 aces; Morgan Tew, 2 aces, 1 kill; and Tess Williams, 1 kill, 1 block.
Jones said the varsity Wildcats just couldn’t seem to get anything going, particularly when they were allowing Midway to play at their pace.
“They play a different pace than we like and for most of the night we were allowing them to keep that pace up. In the game we won, we were playing at our pace and we looked good. But other times, it was a lot like the varsity game, they’d get 3, we’d get 3, then they’d get a few extras and that’s the game,” Jones said.
In the fourth game, Jones said the Lady ‘Cats kept it pretty close, but around the 18-18 point, the Raider girls opened it up. “And that took the lights out of us,” Jones said.”
For the Hobbton varsity, Taylor Bowden had 1 kill and 23 assists; Marcie McLamb, 3 kills; Casey Hobbs, 3 aces, 10 kills; Michaela Wilson, 3 aces, 8 kills; Courtney Phipps, 2 aces, 3 kills and 2 assists; McKenna Smith, 5 kills; and Brittany Testerman, 1 ace.
Hobbton plays host to a powerful Pender team Thursday night. Games begin at 4:30 p.m . The JV ‘Cats are 2-11 overall and 0-7 in conference play. The varsity stands at 7-6 overall, 2-5 in the Tri-County Conference.
Midway welcomes Trask to Raider country. Game time is also at 4:30 p.m.
The Raider JV is now 8-3 overall and 6-1 in conference play; the varsity is 6-6 overall and 3-4 in the conference.
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