The Lord Botetourt and James River volleyball teams will meet for the second time this season when they bump in Daleville Monday night.
LB will host this round of the home-and-home intra-county series after winning the first go-round in Springwood. LB won in three sets, 25-13, 26-24 and 25-22, on September 12.
Since then both teams have been having outstanding seasons. Coming into this week the Cavaliers are still undefeated at 14-0 and James River is 14-2 in games not against Lord Botetourt. The Knights have won nine straight matches since losing to Lord Botetourt the first time around.
The Cavaliers stayed on a roll with two wins against Blue Ridge District opponents last week. The Cavaliers beat Northside and William Byrd, both in three sets.
At home against Northside, the Cavs won 25-10, 25-11 and 25-17. Miette Veldman had another big night with 14 kills, two blocks and seven digs. Lara Veldman had seven kills and six digs, Brooklyn Shelton had four kills and a couple blocks and Jordyn Kepler had 24 assists.
On Thursday the girls were in Vinton where they swept the season series from the host Terriers, 25-11, 25-23 and 25-15. Miette had 12 kills and 11 digs and Lara had eight kills and 17 digs. Kenleigh Gunter had 10 digs, Catherine Reinard had four kills and three blocks and Kepler dished out 30 assists.
This week the Cavaliers have William Fleming on Tuesday and a trip to Staunton River on Thursday, and both should be LB wins. This weekend, however, the Cavaliers will be challenged as they compete in the annual Tournament of Champions at Patrick Henry High School. This is the event that used to be at the Spectrum in Roanoke County.
Botetourt will play five matches against good teams. On Friday the Cavs will take on Cave Spring at 4:30 p.m. and Middleburg Academy at 7 p.m. Then, on Saturday, they meet Loudoun County at 10:15 a.m., Patrick Henry at 11:45 a.m. and Hidden Valley at 1 p.m.
“I’m expecting all these teams to be good, especially Middleburg Academy and Loudoun County,” said LB coach Julie Conner.
Meanwhile, James River rolls on after wins over Carroll County, Nelson County and Floyd County in the past week to improve to 14-3. Against Carroll, a Group 4A school, the Knights won in four sets, 25-9, 22-25, 27-25 and 25-11. River had 42 kills to 24 for Carroll and the Knights served up 16 aces.
Linsey Bailey led River with 23 kills. Bailey Marshall had 11 kills, Michaela Tolley had five and Lillian Clevenger had 19 assists.
On Thursday, River beat Nelson County 25-15, 25-19 and 25-10. Bailey had 31 of River’s 47 kills.
Against Floyd the Knights won 25-21, 21-14 and 21-17. River had 36 kills to 20 for Floyd and Bailey had 21 herself.
River was at Glenvar Tuesday, but results were too late for publication. On Thursday the Knights are at Giles, and after Monday’s game at LB the River girls will host Alleghany on Tuesday and travel to Radford on Thursday, Oct. 19.
LB is off Tuesday of next week, followed by a match at Northside on October 19.
