Same dance, different ballroom.
When the Hidden Valley Titans and Cave Spring Knights knock heads on the volleyball court, certain things are to be expected.
Five sets, almost always a must. 200 + points, fans get their money’s worth. Raucous atmosphere, bring your ear plugs.
Thursday night in the 3A West Region Championside, moved to the Northside gym for neutrality, and away from Brookville for the convenience of the team’s fans, Hidden Valley rallied midway through the fifth-set, 15-point tiebreaker to top their Southwest County rivals 3-2 (22-25; 25-21; 25-23; 16-25; 15-9).
Although both teams were guaranteed to advance to next week’s state semifinals before the first serve went up Thursday, you’d have never known it from the championship atmosphere,
It was literally a killer match.
Lightning blasts from both teams, shots caroming off the low ceiling in the Northside gym and players falling to the hardwood like bowling pins trying to bring up digs.
The main thing coming out of the win for the Titans will be a state semifinal home match against Poquoson Tuesday night in the Hidden Valley gym. Cave Spring must travel to Warhill to face the defending 3A state champs, also set for Tuesday.
If the Titans and Knights win Tuesday, there will be a fifth match between the two next Saturday in Richmond for all the marbles.
“I said to Tamalyn (Cave Spring head coach Tamalyn Tanis), “Let’s go together, let’s finish it,’ ” Hidden Valley head coach Carla Ponn said after the match. “We both have good programs, we both have good teams. Let’s go to Richmond. It’s sorta like SEC football where the coaches have so much respect for each other, but work so hard to beat each other.”
Cave Spring got the first blow Thursday night, taking advantage of early Titan errors to jump out to a 13-7 lead in the first set. Although Hidden Valley rallied to tie things at 15, the Knights, up 22-21, used kills by seniors Alayna Foutz and Piper Roe to win the opener.
The second set was nip-and-tuck through a 17-17 tie before Hidden Valley pulled away with senior Bre Lockhart’s kill and back-to-back pushes by junior Drew Freeland and Lockhart that found open spots to pave the way to the 25-21 win.
The pivotal third set saw the Titans up 17-9 before Cave Spring stormed back to close to 23-22. That’s when Titan libero Lexie Baylor pulled off the shot of the night, bringing up a dig from a Cave Spring laser that Hidden Valley converted to a point to get to set- point. Two points later Lockhart finished the deal with a monstrous kill that had the Titans up 2-1.
“I knew it was going to be hit hard, so I just went down and was able to bring it up,” a smiling Baylor noted of her key dig. “It changed the momentum. I’m just glad we won because it’ll be so much better playing at home next week.”
“That dig was huge,” Ponn pointed out.
It was all Cave Spring in the fourth set as the Knights rolled out to a 21-11 lead and coasted the rest of the way to set up the requisite tiebreaker.
“I told the girls to go for it in game-4,” Tanis noted. “We needed to play loose.”
The fifth set tiebreaker saw the Knights jump out to a 6-3 lead, but Hidden Valley seized the momentum by closing with a 12-3 run to get the match win.
“They got the momentum in the fifth and we got a couple bad breaks,” Tanis pointed out.
“A big win,” Hidden Valley junior Annie Clark noted with a huge smile. “It was pride. Cave Spring-Hidden Valley matches are the most intense every time. Now, we get a home match in front of our student section.”
Lockhart led the Titans with 20 kills, while Freeland put up 43 assists. Senior Georgia Farthing slammed down 9 kills and had 16 digs, with Clark getting 16 digs.
Roe, who signed with Louisville on Wednesday, led Cave Spring with 23 kills and 7 blocks. Senior Lauren Slough and junior Morgan Starnes each had 11 kills, while senior setter Meagan Harrison put up 46 assists. Senior Christy Goldsmith brought up 18 digs, senior Hope Sitze had 3 aces from the service line.
Bill Turner
