Lady Gladiators Dump Devils in Three Straight

[longtimerhsfan]

Riverheads captured the 1-A East Regional title this afternoon with a 25-22, 25-18, 25-19 sweep of the Mathews Lady Devils. Despite losing the match in straight sets, Mathews proved to be quality competition and made a statement in all three games.

In fact, as the first game progressed, no one would have predicted that ANYBODY was going to win this match in three sets. The teams traded the lead throughout that set with neither leading by more than four points. In fact when Mathews took a 21-17 lead, it looked at that point as if their rambunctious fans were about to be rewarded with a 1-0 lead.

But RHS called a strategic time out and came out re-focused to score 7 straight points and move ahead 24-21. Mathews managed one more point before the Gladiators took the first set.

In the second set, the Lady Devils actually took the early lead of 3-0, but once Riverheads grabbed a 5-4 lead, they never looked back. In the finale, RHS led the entire way and in fact appeared ready to end it quickly with a 24-14 lead. Mathews regrouped long enough to score five straight points to make it interesting before the Lady Gladiators closed them out.

Sorry I don't know the terminology well enough to tell you about all the digs and saves, etc. but it did appear that the Lady Gladiators started out slowly but gained steady momentum as the game wore on, which seems to be a trademark of theirs. I will say that for her size, 5'2" Alice Wardy (who probably weighs all of about 87 pounds) had some amazingly athletic saves on the back line today so it is not always the tall ones at the net who do the damage.

As for Mathews, their roster shows that they have about 7 freshmen and sophomores on the team, so I wonder if that means they were senior-dominated last year and were perhaps a surprise to return to the state tournament this year. Whether or not that is the case, they will be a force to be reckoned with in the future.

Speaking of the state tournament, both teams will advance so tonight's game determined who hosts and who travels. The Gladiators will therefore host Tuesday night against the Radford/Auburn loser, whereas the Lady Devils will continue to rack up those frequent flyer miles with their longest trip yet, as they will travel to the home court of the Auburn/Radford winner.

Tuesday's two winners will then meet at VCU at 11:00 AM Saturday for the 1-A title.

 

[uvacavs1]

Thanks again for your great updates. Congrats to Lady Gladiators on their victory. Best wishes to both RHS and MHS as they advance. Don't be surprised if they both happen to met in the state finals, the victors could easily be switched. Volleyball has become quite popular in the Neck as fans often get wild (football, baseball, soccer players sometimes paint up in support), and it is a great fun, atmosphere. Very fun when Mathews (always a great volleyball team, is involved).

Which leads me to the point that the TOP 4 seeds were easily Riverheads, Rapp Co, Northumberland, and Mathews (which most people knew before Region Tournament began). Any of these teams would defeat the other back and forth.

The bottom 4 seeds should have been AltaVista, Cumberland, Windsor, Northampton. (Essex, for example, was better than all those bottom 4).

I will repost one viable solution to the current seeding problem (that has caused issues in most non football sports). While the old way of Region A seeding was not perfect either, at least it was transparent and easily understood in advance by all parties. The original discussion was last Tuesday under NNDman's 16 or 12 teams...post.

 

[uvacavs1]

4 current 1A East Conferences- Each conference regular season winner gets an automatic birth in the Region playoffs. as a deserved reward. Then you play the conference tournament to EARN the Conference #1 seed. If it is the conference regular season winner, it goes to the tournament runner up who will be #2, etc. Makes tournament more exciting and worthwhile as it would be meaningful.

Now the 1A East Region Tournament- Each conference plays another conference (so no more repeats in the next round for region play) that is predetermined and published. It will rotate every three years to be fair. For example:

Conference 41 #1 seed plays Conference 44 #2
Conference 42 seed #1 plays Conference 43 #2

other side of bracket

Conference 44 #1 plays Conference 41 #2
Conference 43 #1 plays Conference 42 #2

winners play in region semis, then the top two play for the 1A region title and seeding in States (top two from East and West go to states).

The next year conference 41 plays 43, the next 42, then back to conference 44. Fair. Simple. No biases.

I am open to suggestions, ways for improvement, or to be convinced the current system is better. Read the other posts for more reasoning if interested.

 

[The New River District]

I Think If you ask the Riverheads Ladies or coaches, They would easily have Altavista in the top 4, Probably top 2...........I Don't get the bottom 4 statement at all..................

 

[longtimerhsfan]

I think that person's opinion was tied into the discussion(s) that we had about Altavista being granted a number two seed in the regional playoffs even after they had lost their conference championship to Riverheads. Most of us felt that the fair thing to have done for the regionals would have been to seed the four conference winners in the number 1-4 slots and the four runners-up by default in the 5-8 slots.

However, I will concede that talent-wise, it does appear that Altavista was one of the tops in the region, so if you evaluate it that way, then yes they could be a top 2 team. As we all know, sometimes one district or conference can in fact have two or more outstanding teams and unfortunately they have to weed themselves out before they get to the regional or state levels.

 

[The New River District]

That was what I was hoping for on that.........The last 5 years in Volleyball Altavista has been Region Champs 3 times, Final 4 three times and State Runner-up twice, If Auburn were playing in the NCAA like they should be Altavista would have a couple of rings..(LOL). . 2 years ago A-town went to Northumberland and beat Matthews and Northumberland in the same day to win the region.......anyway, enough of that...........I enjoyed watching Riverheads Play, nothing flashy, just solid all around volleyball. #16 Can Play!!,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Good Luck in the state, Auburn is a different Animal, but I see this year they have had some close games, maybe this is the year?

 

[uvacavs1]

I can understand that Altavista was strong as well & deserved to be seeded somewhere in the top 5. We would have to examine the overall wins of all the teams, including head to head, common opponents, and the win/loss record of the other teams they played (were they strong or weak opponents in 2a or 3a that moved the average up).

Let's look at Mathews, who was seeded #5 and Northumberland who was seeded #8 (out of 8 teams)

Mathews went 20-2 in regular season (losses to NHS and a 3A?). MHS went undefeated in its old district and won their new Conference Tournament. Yet were seeded a 5 and had to go on the road three rounds....

Northumberland went undefeated in the old NND, won its Conference Tournament, only lost to two teams all year, Rapp Co and Mathews, but also defeated Rapp Co and Mathews. Rapp Co and Mathews combined for 40+ wins this season. NHS was awarded with the bottom seed #8.

I understand how it is too complicated to determine seeding like football for non football sports, that is why my seeding recommendation above is the best answer for fairness and understanding that makes sense. Unless someone has another viable option?