Glass sweeps Hidden Valley in Group AA quarterfinal

In volleyball, where games often stay in the balance to the end, learning how to finish well is critical, as E.C. Glass showed Tuesday night before a raucous home crowd in its cozy auxiliary gym.

Making their first state tournament appearance, in their first season competing at the Group AA level, the Seminole District and Region III tournament champion Hilltoppers (26-2) swept their fifth straight opponent, beating Region IV runner-up Hidden Valley, 25-21, 28-26, 25-23 to stretch their string of games won to 16.

“We never gave up,” said Glass senior middle hitter Meg Kenny, who had a game-high 16 kills, 14 digs and six aces. “All the games were tight. It’s how you finish. We had to use our crowd and our depth to our advantage.”

Kenny finished off the first game with a cross-court spike winner that landed inside the back right corner of the court. Then, in a back-and-forth battle in Game 2, freshman Paige Riley saved game point with two diving digs before senior outside hitter Kim Amerell spiked a kill down the left line that was dug into the crowd, tying it up at 26. Amerell then put the finishing touches on the game by serving back-to-back aces inside the back line, giving the Hilltoppers a 2-0 lead.

“It felt amazing just to finish off that game,” said Amerell, who spiked 12 kills and served six aces of her own. “It was hard because the crowd was right next to me yelling in my face.”

“Our serving’s been excellent,” Glass coach David Cardwell said, adding of Amerell’s offerings, “They were un-returnable. I don’t care who you have back there, you’re not going to return a ball hit that hard, with that much angle and cut on it. I haven’t seen anybody in the state serve like that.”

He said Amerell and Kenny provide an effective 1-2 punch while the rest of the team’s servers deliver the offspeed stuff that can throw teams off as well.

“Kim and Meg are two big servers and everybody else serves those jump floaters,” Cardwell said. “That’s why the hard ones are so hard to return, because we mix it up so well.”

“Their serving really took us out of our game and took us out of our offense,” Titans coach Carla Poff added.

For Hidden Valley (21-5), its four previous losses all came in four games to Region IV champion Cave Spring, which won three state titles between 2003 and 2006. The Titans advanced to the state final last year for the first time, losing to defending state champion Loudoun County.

But they graduated five starters from that team and returned only two seniors.

“We haven’t had any breaks this year,” Poff said. “We lost a lot of games by two points and we’ve had to fight tooth and nail the whole time. All year long, we’ve fought to the end.”

Cardwell knew the Hilltoppers were in for a tough match.

“This was the game I really scouted and was worried about,” he said. “I feel like Hidden Valley was the toughest team we’ve played all year. It was a great match. We stepped up and played excellent. We made some mistakes, but we forced them to make some more.”

Poff said playing in front of such a loud crowd didn’t take them out of their game.

“They played really well,” she said. “They enjoyed the crowd. They like people cheering for them.”

“That is the biggest student section we’ve ever had at a game,” Titans senior Samantha Ringer added. “It was a fun atmosphere.”

But the Hilltoppers clearly enjoyed it more.

“That was a lot of fun,” said Mary Grace Lemon, who finished with five kills at crucial times, often off her slide spikes from the right side. “We have a great team and it just all came together tonight.”

After Kenny served an ace inside the baseline to put Glass up 24-21, Amerell finished off Game 3 with a spike kill after defensive specialist Niki Good made a freeball save from the baseline.

The Hilltoppers will play Grafton, a 25-19, 25-10, 20-25, 25-22 quarterfinal winner over Western Albemarle, in Friday’s Group AA state semifinal match, set for 6 p.m. at VCU’s Siegel Center.

“It’s going to be different traveling to Richmond,” Amerell said. “We’ve never done anything like that before, so we’re excited.”

“I want to bring some gold back this year,” added Cardwell, who coached Amherst to two state Final Four appearances, losing both to Loudoun County in the semifinals, and also guided Holy Cross to three VISVA Division III semifinals, finishing runner-up once. “That was the best we’ve played all year (but) we’ve got to keep playing better and better.”

“We’re going to leave it all out on the court,” Kenny added.