Although I am known mainly for my reports on football and basketball, I was asked tonight if I would review the Conference 36 title game between Wilson and Riverheads that was held tonight at RHS. Well I will give it the old college try, but bear with me, because this was only my second volleyball match of the season, and I still don't understand all the rules. So I will stick to the basics.
First of all, the game got started with a "Who knew he could do that" moment, when Austin Smiley, better known as the tenacious linebacker on the Gladiator football team, showed us a different side of himself as he delivered an excellent rendition of the national anthem. Now since this was my first home game of the year, I guess it is possible that he has done it at other games this season. At any rate, great idea by someone and great job!
The undefeated Lady Gladiators won in three sets by scores of 25-23, 25-18, and 25-11, although the Lady Hornets had taken them to a fourth set in each of their regular season matches. The pattern of those scores might indicate that fatigue was a factor, as the visitors appeared to run out of gas by the end of the evening.
Wilson was obviously highly competitive in the first set, not quite so much in the second, but in the third set the Gladiators had a double-digit lead by the time it was 11-1 and held it the rest of the way. The fact that Wilson had been pushed to a fourth set last night by East Rock could have had an impact on their energy level.
The Big Red got excellent net play by the same group that has carried them all season. Mariah Clark, Nyssa Stapleton, Jennifer Callison, and Cassidey Chrisman seemed to have the most impact to my inexperienced eye, so please forgive me if I overlooked anyone. Maybe the PC thing to say was that it was a total team effort.
Thanks to the excellent program provided by the Riverheads AD, C J Vandevander, as well as information listed elsewhere on this website, I think I can grasp and explain what happens next, but please correct me if I am wrong.
The next important event is the Conference 35 championship game, which is set for Saturday, between undefeated Madison County and Luray. Luray, as you may know, is the only team to take Riverheads to five sets, which they did in the regular-season finale last week. So the results of that match Saturday could give us some insight into who might be favored in next week's 2-A East Regionals.
By virtue of tonight's win, the Gladiators earned the right to host a regional quarter-final Tuesday night (11th) and that opponent will be the Luray/Madison loser. Wilson will travel, also Tuesday, to the home court of the Madison/Luray winner. Both of those will be 7:00 first serves.
Similar match-ups will take place Tuesday between the four remaining teams in Conferences 33 and 34 in the other half of the region. That will leave four teams to battle it out in the regional semi-finals next Thursday, with a pair of state berths on the line. Then on Saturday night the 15th, the two teams who have survived those first two rounds will battle it out for the regional crown.
It is always risky business to look ahead in the world of sports, but if all the stars aligned properly, we "could" see a match of unbeatens that Saturday night between Madison and RHS. If that should come to pass, it would be at RHS, and I will warn the Gladiator student section in advance.......from what I remember of the last time Madison came over this way for volleyball, you guys would have to take lessons to keep pace with them. To put it mildly, the Mounties take their volleyball SERIOUSLY!!!!
But again I emphasize there is a lot of serving and spiking to be done before we get to that stage, and for all we know, there could be teams in Conference 33 or 34 that will be forces to be reckoned with.
So for now, congrats to the Gladiators for tonight's big win and let's see a packed house on Tuesday when we will entertain either the dangerous Lady Bulldogs, or the Lady Mounties if Luray pulls off the upset Saturday.
Got all that?
