By Sara Page, Midlothian Exchange
spage@midlothianexchange.com

The 11 seniors on the Clover Hill boys’ varsity volleyball team were freshmen the last time the Cavaliers entered and won the state title game in 2005. All 11 seniors watched the finishing points of a nail-biter in the first Virginia High School League Group AAA semifinal match as Cosby did their part to set up the seventh rematch between the two Dominion District teams.

But if the 12 members of the Cavalier squad were thinking about the state finals, they didn’t let it show as they focused on the task at hand – getting past First Colonial. That, in fact, may have marked their biggest advantage of all – that the Cavaliers sported 12 upperclassmen to their opponent’s three as they rode a 3-1 (25-22, 25-23, 22-25, 26-24) win into the state championship match.

“I think there’s six or seven seniors” in the starting rotation, First Colonial coach Gary Hodges said. “We had three sophomores and a freshman starting, so they had an experience factor on that. You could see that early, especially in the first two games. We let them go on runs of like five points.”

The Cavaliers built five-point leads twice in the first game and twice in the second game, which they extended to seven- and eight-point leads, but the team had trouble closing the door in each game.

Ahead 20-12 in the second game, Clover Hill gave up four points in a row as the Patriots clawed their way back. First Colonial scored their fifth unanswered point after a timeout and then went on a three-point run to pull within one at 21-20.

A block by Clover Hill’s Josh Keeder (seven kills, three blocks) kept the Cavaliers in the driver’s seat, but Clover Hill had two hits go out of bounds, tying the game at 22. The teams went point-for-point before the Cavaliers took advantage of mistakes by their opponents to pull out the win.

The Patriots spread the floor in the third match and got points from four different players to force a fourth game.

The teams matched each other early in the fourth game, but Clover Hill snuck out to a five-point lead behind kills from Matt White (10 kills, seven digs) and Alden Negaard. The Cavaliers would maintain the five-point margin until First Colonial senior Ryan Stallard took control. He hit three blocks in a row to lead the Patriots to seven unanswered points.

The teams again traded points until a kill by Mark Smith (eight kills, four blocks, one dig) put Clover Hill within one point of finishing the match at 24-23 and brought the Cavalier crowd to its feet.

The Cavaliers gave up a point in the net, but a dig by Matt White saved another First Colonial point and led to a set up for Josh Keeder, who slammed the ball home.

Clover Hill watched a First Colonial return on a Tony Song jump-serve sail long. Song ended the semifinal match with 10 kills, eight digs, four assists and one block for Clover Hill, and the team celebrated a return to the state finals where they will face a team has become pretty familiar.

“We’re looking forward to playing Cosby again,” Clover Hill head coach Georjean Lampley said. “When we were at the district finals, the handshaking and the congratulating was ‘Can’t wait to see you at state finals.’

“If I haven’t coached [the Cosby] players, I’ve coached some of their older brothers, so it’s family,” Lampley continued.

Cosby and Clover Hill will play one last time for the season Friday night at 8 p.m. at the Siegel Center at Virginia Commonwealth University.