After spending the previous week on the road, the Randolph-Henry High School varsity girls volleyball team went 1-2 during a three-game homestand last week, but the Lady Statesmen fought hard in each match, making their opponents earn the wins.

“This was a good week of volleyball for us,” Randolph-Henry Head Coach Scott “Shep” Critzer said. “We’ve been getting better as a team every day, and it came together this week. We got good contributions from everyone and gave ourselves a chance to win all three matches against good teams.”

On Oct. 11, the team hosted James River District rival Amelia County High School. The two teams traded games throughout the match, with Randolph-Henry taking the first and third games 25-17 and 25-21 and Amelia forcing a fifth game with 25-22 and 25-19 wins in the second and fourth games. It was the Lady Statesmen’s night, though, as they got the run they needed late in the fifth game to take the 15-12 win.

Kierra Jones paced the Statesmen hitting attack with nine kills while Hannah Pascuita picked up a season-high nine aces from the service line. Pascuita and Kendall Bowman also combined for five kills from the setting position.

The team played another barn-burner Oct. 12 as it faced off against Nelson County High School. Again, the two teams traded games and momentum swings throughout the match. Nelson took the first and third games 25-18 and 25-13, but Randolph-Henry stayed even in the match with a 25-15 win in the second and a 25-11 win in the fourth game to send it to a final set. Both teams played even in the final set before Nelson made a short run to capture the 15-11 win.

Annie Sandridge and Jones led the Lady Statesmen attack with 14 and 10 kills, respectively, while Anna Pascuita added six aces and Kimmi Horsfall chipped in four. Horsfall finished the night with a season-high 44 digs.

Randolph-Henry finished its homestand Oct. 13 against Cumberland High School and put in a little extra work in the process. Each of the first three games of the match went to extra points with Randolph-Henry falling 26-24 and 27-25 in the first two before finally breaking through 28-26 in the third. The two teams continued to play tough as they found themselves locked at 20-20 in the fourth game, but Cumberland made a run to close out the match with the 25-20 win.

Jones anchored the Lady Statesmen offense on the night with 10 kills and got some help from Jakaya Pettus, who had seven kills of her own. Horsfall and Anna Pascuita led the defense with a combined 41 digs on the night.

Randolph-Henry travels to face Prince Edward County High School on Thursday before closing out its home schedule Tuesday against Buckingham County High School.