Photos by Daniel Slusher
The James River volleyball team saw the season come to an end one win short of a trip to the state championship game at the Salem Civic Center. The Knights lost in the state semifinals in four sets, far away from the Roanoke Valley.
After expecting to play their state semifinal game with Ridgeview in the friendly confines of the James River gym, the Virginia High School League spiked River’s plans to host the game in Springwood. Instead, one day before the game was scheduled, they moved the game to Clintwood and pushed it back a day. That resulted in a long ride and an overnight stay for the Knights, which didn’t make coach Linsey Firebaugh very happy.
“This match was supposed to be played at James River, so we were prepared for our home environment,” said Firebaugh. “You can’t change the location of a match like this one day before it’s scheduled.”
Despite the upsetting course of events the Knights came out fired up, winning the first set 25-21. The second set went down to the wire, but the Wolfpack was able to pull it out, 25-23, to even the match. Things went downhill from there for James River. Ridgeview won eight of the last nine points in the third set to win 25-17 and take the lead in the match. The unexpected host team then took the fourth set, 25-13, to advance to Saturday’s championship in Salem.
Brea Anduiza had 13 kills for River and Ava Thacker had a dozen. Konner Myers had 14 digs and Caitlin Canada had a strong game at the net for the Knights.
With the loss, River finished the season at 22-9. The Knights had a good season with a Region 2C championship and their first trip to the state semifinals since 2017 when Firebaugh was a senior on the James River team. Current assistants Lilli Clevenger and Bailey Marshall were also on that team.
This was Firebaugh’s second season as head coach. The Knights were 9-14 in 2022 but improved to 14-10 last year in Linsey’s first season at the helm, reaching the state quarterfinals. This year the team took another step and is 36-19 in her two years as head coach.
The Knights will have some quality seniors to replace next year. Canada, Anduiza, Myers, Thacker, Jadyn Miller and Avery Williams will all be lost to graduation.
