Altavista, Nelson County coast into Region B semis

Central-Lunenburg played a slow-down game, but Altavista, despite some early troubles, still managed to race through the Chargers and into the Region B volleyball tournament semifinals with a 25-16, 25-16, 25-14 sweep in the quarterfinals Tuesday.

The Colonels (16-7) will host the winner of the Madison County-Riverheads match at 7 p.m. on Thursday for a chance to play in Saturday’s championship match and receive an automatic bid to the Group A state tournament.

“I don’t think we ever got into a game-like rhythm that we are used to playing, but every game is different and you have to be able to adjust to that tempo,” Altavista coach Debra Spencer said. “Obviously, we would have liked to play a more up-tempo match.

“This time of year, it’s about being the best team on a given night. It doesn’t matter how you win. It is a survive-and-advance situation. It wasn’t our best effort, but I thought we did some good things — like the way we responded to a not-so-good start.” 

The Chargers played nearly the entire match with one player blocking at the net and the other five players behind the 3-meter line to attempt to cut down on the amount of court the Colonels had to hit to on their spike attempts. Central also was, for the most part, willing to just dump the ball back over the net without attempting to spike it when the Chargers were on offense.

The slowed-down pace of the match seemed to bother the Colonels initially as Central built up a 15-13 lead before Altavista scored the last 12 points of game to take it, 25-16.

“I think we did a better job of playing to that tempo later in the first game,” Spencer said. “We were off to an erratic start.”

The Colonels jumped out a 9-3 lead in game two and never looked back. The third game was a little more completive as the teams were tied five times before Altavista went on a nine-point run to take a 17-8 lead.

Andra Brumfield paced the Colonels with 12 kills. Lindsay Mayberry finished with 27 assists. Karlie Rigler chipped in 4 kills, two aces and a block.

“It was kind of rough in the beginning,” Brumfield said. “We didn’t know them, we hadn’t heard of them and we didn’t know what to expect, but we came out in the second and third games and really took it to them. This year I feel like our team is coming together and we are playing our hearts out.”

Governors sweep host Randolph-Henry

Nelson County’s volleyball team, the Dogwood District tournament champion, swept host Randolph-Henry 3-0 in the Region B quarterfinals on Tuesday, 25-17,25-17, 25-14.

The power hitting Ashley Wells had 14 kills while Governors teammate Erika Toliver added nine and Tashia Crawford had eight. Crawford also guarded the net well with six blocks.

Setter Keona Loving recorded 33 assists and Brittany Crawford had 11 digs in the win.

The Lady Governors will face the winner of Tuesday’s quarterfinal match between Stonewall Jackson and Strasburg on Thursday.