After dropping first set, New Kent rebounds to take out rival Jamestown in volleyball action

New Kent's Fallon Greenawalt (left) winds up to deliver a spike against Jamestown defenders.

Robb Johnson photo

In past meetings, New Kent’s Lady Trojans and the Jamestown Lady Eagles were prominent programs dominating the top of the Bay Rivers District. But in the 2022 season, both teams are going through rebuilding phases for the future. During the Oct. 14 matchup, the hosting Lady Trojans showed they were a few steps ahead of their Bay Rivers counterpart.

After dropping the first set, New Kent captured the next three to win 22-25, 25-17, 25-18, 25-17 to extend their win streak to five.

In the first set, both teams played evenly for most of the frame as the score set at 20 apiece. From there, the Lady Eagles pulled away scoring five of the next seven points, capped off by a kill from Maddie Sedor to capture the opening frame.

New Kent started to flex their muscle in the next frame behind the power of Aubrey Hyndshaw and Leah Rounds. The duo catapulted the Lady Trojans to capture frame number two to tie the match at one apiece. In the third frame, New Kent jumped out to a 10-3 lead before cruising to take an advantage in the match.

In the fourth frame, Jamestown was able to recoup from the Lady Trojans’ intimidation, playing evenly with the host to a 10-10 tie. But from there, New Kent’s Fallon Greenawalt and Sophie McLaughlin used serves to orchestrate a 7-1 run for the hosts and a 17-11 advantage. Meanwhile errors by Jamestown coupled with a spike from New Kent’s Kaleigh Redman sealed the match for the hosts.

After the contest, New Kent Lady Trojans Head Coach Stuart Burnett spoke about recovering from the opening frame.

“The first game was not pretty,” he commented. “I do not remember a varsity game with that many missed serves as we had on both sides.

“We fought back and got some good swings, but they blocked a lot better than we anticipated,” Burnett continued. “We started to work on things, and we got the win. It’s always a sweet thing beating Jamestown because you still have to play very well to beat this team.

New Kent (12-10) was led by six aces from McLaughlin, and Hyndshaw, who had 14 kills and 12 digs, respectively.