Photos by Jim & Regina Devinney
The James River volleyball team will be playing in the Class 2 state volleyball quarterfinal round on Saturday. The opponent and site was to be determined on Tuesday when the Knights played for the Region 2C championship.
River was scheduled to play Three Rivers District foe Radford on Tuesday at Roanoke College for the region crown. The winner gets a home match for the state semifinal Saturday while Tuesday’s loser has to play on the road. Marion and Ridgeview were playing for the Region 2D crown this week and the winner of that match will host the James River-Radford loser, while the Region 2D loser heads to the home of the winner of the River-Radford game.
James River had a record of 20-8 prior to Tuesday’s match. They played Radford three times prior with the Bobcats winning the first meeting but the Knights winning the second, then winning three sets to none in the Three Rivers District tournament.
The Knights kept up the good work in the region tournament, opening with a three-set win over Dan River, 25-15, 28-26 and 25-10. Brea Anduiza had 29 assists and three aces, Konner Myers had 13 digs, Caitlin Canada had 16 kills and Ava Thacker had eight kills and three aces.
“This was a solid win,” said River coach Linsey Firebaugh. “We did not have our best night but we were able to keep them out of system enough to let them make hitting errors. Dan River worked hard to keep the ball alive but we were able to put the ball away when we got free balls from them.”
With the win the third-seeded Knights advanced to the region semifinals, playing second-seeded Appomattox on the road Thursday. This one was a five-set war that River had to come from behind twice to win, 23-25, 25-19, 21-25, 25-19 and 15-13.
“This was a great win,” said Firebaugh. “We went into the game very confident with a good game plan of getting them out of system. They have a good outside that swings hard. Our goal was to go point for point while she was on the front row and to go on runs when she was on the back row. For the most part that game plan worked well. Also, serving aggressively to keep the setter from setting easy balls. We played great defense and good serve receive. We were hard to get out of system.”
Canada had 16 kills and five blocks in this one while Anduiza dished out 26 assists. Myers had 20 digs, Jadyn Miller had 10 kills and River had 13 serving aces as a team, including back-to-back aces by Myers to put it away in the final set to 15.
Meanwhile, Radford was upsetting region top-seed Gretna to make the Region 2C final an All-Three Rivers District showdown.
