The Conference 32 volleyball semifinal Tuesday night at Cave Spring saw the Blacksburg Bruins score the match’s first point on a net violation.
Cave Spring then went on a net onslaught.
Dominating the Bruins with their signature power style, the Knights outlasted Blacksburg 25-15; 16-25; 25-18; 25-15 to advance to Thursday night’s conference final against rival Hidden Valley.
Hidden Valley, a 3-0 winner over Abingdon in Tuesday’s other Conference 32 semifinal, will be looking to repeat last week’s 3-2 comeback win over the Knights.
Blacksburg brought plenty of fight to the Cave Spring gym, but the young Bruin squad was in an uphill fight all night long.
Cave Spring rebounded from a net violation on the match’e first volley to use a string of kills to lead 6-1. Blacksburg showed it came to play when it rallied to tie things at 11 before the Knights used a pair of Meagan Harrison aces, a kill and a Bruin misplay to go up 17-11. Cave Spring then coasted the rest of the way for the 25-15 win.
Blacksburg made a statement in the second set when it jumped out to leads of 12-5 and 19-13 before going on a closing 6-1 run to make it one set apiece. It was the second time this season Blacksburg has won a set from the Knights.
For the energized Bruins it was match-on, and the Cave Spring side was looking at itself to avoid a repeat of last Thursday’s setback at Hidden Valley. Cave Spring responded with authority.
The Knights pulled away from a 13-12 lead in the third set with a 10-2 swing and 23-14 advantage that they pushed to the 25-18 victory.
Blacksburg, looking to force a fifth-set, 15-point tiebreaker, had things tied at 12 in the fourth set when the Knights went on back-to-back runs of 8-2 and 5-1, keyed by kills, to complete the match clincher.
“We played great in the second set,” Blacksburg head coach Nicole Kessner noted after the match. “But, we’re a young team with seven sophomores and only four seniors. We’ll execute our game plan for one game, then it gets away from us. It came down to mental errors. Cave Spring is a very good team. In order to prepare for their hitters, we had guys coming in to our practice to duplicate their hitting power.”
“It’s a shame that a state-level match has to be played in a district tournament where one team is eliminated,” Kessner added. “But, it makes you work harder.”
“We needed for that to happen in the second set,” Cave Spring head coach Tamalyn Tanis said of the Bruin comeback. “Blacksburg has improved so much and it hit us we had to play better. They are by far one of the best defensive teams we’ve seen.We were hitting well, but they were keeping the balls up. Tournaments start a brand new season. Tonight, Piper ( Roe ) established her game in the middle. Then, we had Charity and Tessa (Klimaitis) at the net, and Shannon Holsinger became a threat from the right side.”
“We started trusting ourselves,” Holsinger pointed out. “I was on tonight with my hits. When we get our shots going, it’s hard to defend.”
Roe led the Cave Spring power surge with 16 kills, with Charity Klimaitis adding 11, Holsinger 9 and Tessa Klimaitis 8 kills. Meagan Harrison fired up 44 assists with Alayna Foutz providing 19 digs to go along with 5 blocks by Tessa Klimaitis.
On the Blacksburg side, senior Catherine Boyle had 15 kills and 20 digs. Sophomore Alana Turk brought up 16 digs , with senior Abigail Phillips slamming 7 kills and getting 3 blocks.
– Bill Turner