By Sara Page, Midlothian Exchange
spage@midlothianexchange.com

The Clover Hill boys’ varsity volleyball team has had, arguably, the toughest road to the state playoffs. It wound through two past state champions and all three Central Region district champions. But that is exactly how coach Georjean Lampley would have it.

“We have had a really tough season,” Lampley said. “We played a lot of good competition and that really helped prepare us. It helped playing James River five times, helped prepare us for tonight and for states, so I’m glad we have the tough schedule. I asked for it.”

In Friday night’s Central Region Tournament final, the Cavaliers unseated their third and final district champion – Cosby – 3-1 (19-25, 25-11, 25-15, 25-19) to enter the Virginia High School League Group AAA semifinals as the top seed from the Central Region. The game was the sixth meeting between the Dominion District foes and the fourth with a championship on the line.

Cosby held a 3-2 edge going into the match and went up 1-0 early, but Clover Hill grabbed the reigns in the second game.

The Cavaliers led by as much as 17 before Cosby earned four points in a row to force a timeout. Clover Hill regrouped and grabbed the final two points off unforced errors.

In terms of what happened, “I’m still trying to figure that out,” Cosby coach Frank Jenkins said. “I was concerned about how we’d come out after yesterday’s forced no game and no practice. We played well. We came out strong in the first game and did some good things.”

Momentum had clearly swung in favor of Clover Hill. The team spread their offense in the third game, getting three blocks from Josh Keeder and three big kills from Matt White including the final one of the game, which put the Cavaliers in the driver’s seat 2-1 heading into the fourth game.

“Playing Deep Run, we had that one-player mentality like they’re going to set this one guy in big situations and then here, we came out, and [Cosby] had a balanced offense, so we had to change our game completely,” Clover Hill senior hitter Mark Smith said. “In that first game, we didn’t take care of [the ball] at all.”

Cosby put on a strong performance in the final game. The teams battled point for point. The Titans got an edge early off a kill from Daniel Helderman. Senior Cameron Vaile kept Cosby ahead 9-8 with a kill at the net.

Cosby pulled ahead by two and got their crowd into it, but Clover Hill scored four points in a row to regain the lead.

“We have had mental focus issues this year,” Jenkins said. “There have been times when we’ve faced adversity and we’ve struggled to get back … In terms of consistency, this was Clover hill’s best performance overall. Their defense took us out of our game.”

Smith ended the night with eight kills including the final one of the match. A pair of digs by Bret Brooks kept the ball alive for Clover Hill. On the second, the set up came to Smith and he slammed it home.

“We went into the time out, and [the coaches] were talking about covering low and keeping our hitters out, so we just got it up again and again, and I wanted to put it down so bad. I’d been covering the whole time,” Smith said.

Tony Song led the Cavaliers with 12 kills, four blocks, five digs and one ace and Alden Negaard had four kills, four blocks and one dig. In addition to his eight kills, Smith had five blocks, one dig and two assists.

Leading Cosby was Stephen Cunningham with 13 kills. Ben Morrison had 10 kills and two blocks and Cameron Vaile had eight kills and six blocks.

Both teams head to the state semifinals at the Siegel Center next Wednesday. Cosby will play the Eastern Region champion at 6 p.m. and Clover Hill will face the Eastern Region runner up at 8 p.m. The Eastern Region final will be played Saturday night between Great Bridge and First Colonial.