It will be defending state champ Gate City against undefeated Riverheads as the Lady Gladiators roared back from a first-set loss to take care of Floyd County 20-25, 25-13, 25-22, 25-14 before a raucous home crowd. Saturday's trip to VCU will be the furthest any Riverheads team has advanced in the playoffs in school history.
The first set was tied at every point from 1 to 6 before RHS grabbed a four point lead. They stretched it to 16-9 and appeared to be on their way to an easy first game victory before the Lady Buffs came to life and pulled out the win.
Game two was then all Riverheads as the home team evened things up.
The third set was by far the tensest and most controversial of the evening. First of all, with Riverheads leading 10-6, the sideline ref made an out of bounds ruling that the entire southern half of Augusta County disagreed with. Needless to say, he will be scratched from some Christmas card lists tonight.
Then later in the match, the 19th Gladiator point brought the house down because of how hard-earned it was. That particular volley seemed to last for 5 minutes before Floyd finally sent the ball into the net instead of over, giving RHS a 19-14 lead at that point.
Soon thereafter, with RHS clinging to a 20-17 lead, the refs lost their concentration over something that led to a 15 minute delay. All I can tell you is that it had something to do with a time-out or a substitution infraction. They talked it over amongst themselves endlessly and I did read one lady ref's lips as she told another one "it was my fault." Finally they allowed play to resume.
Floyd rallied briefly at that point and closed to within 21-20 and then 22-21 before RHS put them away. The Gladiators then dominated the fourth and deciding game.
I don't have stats and I am still foggy on a lot of the terminology, but Mariah Clark seemed to be a woman possessed tonight and had a number of kills. She was almost forced into a higher level game because her fellow all-district performer Nyssa Stapleton was still nursing her sore shoulder and played sparingly.
The championship match is set for 1:00 Saturday at the Siegel Center. May as well come early and get your money's worth, since it will be preceded by the 11:00 Group 1-A title game.
The first set was tied at every point from 1 to 6 before RHS grabbed a four point lead. They stretched it to 16-9 and appeared to be on their way to an easy first game victory before the Lady Buffs came to life and pulled out the win.
Game two was then all Riverheads as the home team evened things up.
The third set was by far the tensest and most controversial of the evening. First of all, with Riverheads leading 10-6, the sideline ref made an out of bounds ruling that the entire southern half of Augusta County disagreed with. Needless to say, he will be scratched from some Christmas card lists tonight.
Then later in the match, the 19th Gladiator point brought the house down because of how hard-earned it was. That particular volley seemed to last for 5 minutes before Floyd finally sent the ball into the net instead of over, giving RHS a 19-14 lead at that point.
Soon thereafter, with RHS clinging to a 20-17 lead, the refs lost their concentration over something that led to a 15 minute delay. All I can tell you is that it had something to do with a time-out or a substitution infraction. They talked it over amongst themselves endlessly and I did read one lady ref's lips as she told another one "it was my fault." Finally they allowed play to resume.
Floyd rallied briefly at that point and closed to within 21-20 and then 22-21 before RHS put them away. The Gladiators then dominated the fourth and deciding game.
I don't have stats and I am still foggy on a lot of the terminology, but Mariah Clark seemed to be a woman possessed tonight and had a number of kills. She was almost forced into a higher level game because her fellow all-district performer Nyssa Stapleton was still nursing her sore shoulder and played sparingly.
The championship match is set for 1:00 Saturday at the Siegel Center. May as well come early and get your money's worth, since it will be preceded by the 11:00 Group 1-A title game.
