The Lord Botetourt volleyball team is headed to Christiansburg Thursday hoping to keep their season alive. The Cavaliers won the Blue Ridge District tournament last week, then opened Region 3D play with a win at Tunstall on Monday.
Thursday’s region semifinal game at Christiansburg will be a challenge. The host Blue Demons are the top seed in the region and undefeated after 23 matches. Lord Botetourt hosted the Demons in their invitational in Daleville on Oct. 4 and lost in two sets, 25-18 and 25-14, in a best-of-three match.
The Cavaliers are playing a lot better now than they were the first week of October. Botetourt has won 11 straight matches since that Saturday, including the BRD tournament championship last week and the region opener this week. The Cavaliers are now 16-7 overall.
“We are hitting our stride here in the post season and are looking to be very competitive on Thursday,” said coach Samantha Wilkins.
Photos by Brian Hoffman
LB hosted the BRD tournament championship last Thursday and beat visiting Franklin County, 25-23, 25-23, 22-25 and 25-14. Gracelynn Clark had a dozen kills, two blocks and a pair of aces. Ava Stephens had seven blocks to go with six kills and Kennedy Fender dished out 30 assists along with three aces and 15 digs.
Botetourt entered the eight-team Region 3D tournament as the fifth seed, playing at fourth seeded Tunstall in Monday’s quarterfinal. Botetourt lost the first set, 25-14, but bounced back to take the next three by scores of 25-18, 25-19 and 25-23, pulling out a tough fourth set to keep the Trojans from tying the match.
“We started out slow and struggled to pass, but once we settled in we did a good job of running our offense and getting them out of system,” said Wilkins.
Clark had 10 kills and six blocks, Stephens had seven kills and five blocks and Fender has 24 assists.
“Our team has worked very hard to get to this point,” said Wilkins. “With only having a few returning from last season we had to figure out what worked best for this team. I am very proud of them.”
