Photo 📷 Credit – Patti Goins
Brooke Webb and Raylee Goins going up for the Block vs Patrick County
The Hill – The final score will show that Carroll County swept Patrick County 3-0 Thursday night but looks can be deceiving. The Lady 👩 Cavaliers won the sets 25-20, 25-23, 25-21, totalling just 11 points difference between the squads.
The victory pushed Head Coach Cindy Edwards and her squad to 7-4 in the Three Rivers District, which secures the team a birth in the District Final Four. Patrick County entered the night with a remote chance at tying Carroll County for the fourth and final spot.
CCHS completed season sweeps against the three teams below them in the standings. Patrick County, Glenvar and Floyd County collectively went 0-6 against the Lady 👩 Cavaliers. Accomplishing this was the difference between making the Post season event and waiting for Regional play to begin. Any Coach will tell you that to be successful in a season you have to capitalize on winning matches that you should win.
The battle in the opening set did not take place until the very end. CCHS led 19-10 after Laiken Burnett (22 Assists, 17 Digs) executed a Quarterback Sneak (Setter Dump is the technical term). It was at that point that the Cougars upped their game. They closed the lead down to 24-20 and was serving when a service error allowed the Lady Cavaliers to escape with a 25-20 victory.
The second set was unlike anything that Carroll County has experienced. The teams were tied at 9 and stayed that way at every point between 9 and 20. CCHS scored the next two points on Kills by Brooke Webb and Ali Wright ( 12 Kills, 7 Digs)to finally break the string but Patrick County answered with three straight points to lead 23-22.
Facing the possibility of the match being tied at one set each, Carroll County answered with their own three spot. Wright tied the set and Aza Petty closed out the nail bighter 25-23.
The third set mirrored the second one with the contest being the Cougars ability to land BIG swings versus the Lady Cavaliers ability to Dig the balls out. During the match CCHS executed four Pancake Digs, including two on the same play. Callie Harris reached double figures with 12 Digs in addition to having 3 Aces.
The closeout set did not include a single run greater than three points by either team. The teams were tied 10 times by the point where it was 15-15 and thats when CCHS scored three unanswered to force a time out from PCHS.
The Cougars answered again, pulling within 22-21, forcing Coach Edwards to call a timeout. Raylee Goins made the next Kill and it was the one that took the wind out of the visitors sails ⛵. Two more points closed out the night 🌙 and set up a trip over to Alleghany on Monday October 28th for a District Semi-final match.
The Finals will be played on Wednesday October 30th.
Carroll County will be off until next Thursday night when the travel up to Radford(7-3 TRD) to close out the regular season. In their match on The Hill Carroll County led 2-0 before the Bobcats stormed back to win 3-2.
James River (6-3) made the race to the finish a bit more interesting when the Knights hosted and swept the Bobcats Wednesday night. JRHS swept Carroll County so they hold the tiebreaker. The Knights have three matches remaining and will be heavy favorites in all three.
Alleghany (9-1 TRD) has clinched the Regular Season Championship, giving them the honor 🎖 of hosting the District Tourney Championship.
In regards to the Regional tournament the Lady Cavaliers currently are holding down the #7 seed. If holds up the team would host a 7 vs 10 Play In game on Saturday November 2nd.
A.S.P.N on The Hill 