The popular high school shout-out is “come early, stay late.”
Tuesday night in the Cave Spring gym, the Blacksburg Bruins volleyball team stayed around much longer than the Lady Knights wanted.
Rallying from a 2-1 deficit, the Bruins won the fourth set, then went overtime in the fifth-set, 15-point tiebreaker to outlast Cave Spring 25-23; 23-25; 24-26; 25-22; 16-14 for the River Ridge District win.
The night was an exercise in frustration for the Knights, who continually opened the door for the never-say-die Bruins.
“We did a good job tonight,” Blacksburg head coach Nicole Kessner said after her team’s huge upset. “Cave Spring is very good at the net, so we worked on blocking to get ready for this match. They beat us handily earlier this year and are 3-4 inches taller per player. We wanted to outwit them by placing the ball in open spots. We’re hoping to be peaking at the right time.”
Cave Spring came out strong in the opening set, jumping out to a 12-3 lead. But, the Bruins fought back to tie things at 18 before eventually taking a 21-18 lead late in the set. Blacksburg got to set-point at 24-23 when a Knight set at the net fell harmlessly to the court to hand the Bruins the 1-0 lead.
Cave Spring led 11-4 in the second when Blacksburg rallied to tie the set at 15. The Bruins pushed their lead to 21-17 when the Knights came alive to go on a 8-2 run finished off by senior Lauren Slough’s push shot for the set-clincher.
The third set was tight throughout and tied at 22 when Blacksburg served for set-point, up 24-23. But, senior Piper Roe slammed down a kill, Blacksburg suffered a net violation and senior Hope Sitze spotted a service ace down the left sideline to give the Knights the 26-24 win and commanding 2-1 lead.
Blacksburg wouldn’t roll over.
Cave Spring led 7-1 to open the fourth set when the Bruins went on a 9-3 run to tie the set at 10. The set stayed tied at 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21 before the Bruins closed with a 4-1 run to send the match to the tiebreaker.
Both teams had early leads in the fifth before the Bruins got to match-point, serving with a 14-11 lead. Cave Spring responded with three straight points to tie it at 14, but Blacksburg got the final say with two straight points.
“It was inconsistency, tonight,” Cave Spring head coach Tamalyn Tanis noted afterward of her team’s play. “We just didn’t make the adjustments we needed. We’d play well for a while, then give it up. It came down to bad decisions and bad execution.”
Junior libero Alana Turk led Blacksburg with 50 digs, while junior Catie Walters added 21 assists. Sophomore Maya Stephens anchored the Bruin net play with 10 kills and 7 blocks.
Roe led Cave Spring with 20 kills and 4 blocks, running her VHSL record-breaking career-block total to 407 and counting. Alayna Foutz had 22 digs, with Meagan Harrison putting up 42 assists and Sitze serving up 7 aces.
Bill Turner