It wasn’t the effortless sweep Nelson put together last week against Riverheads in the Region B semifinals, but nonetheless, the result was the same. Northumberland got off its bus after a 175-mile drive and made the Governors’ offense work for its points in the Group A Divison 1 quartefinals. The problem for the Indians, or rather, the good news for the Governors, was that it was mostly a one-sided match with Nelson hammering away at the Northumberland defense, beating it into submission to the tune of a 3-0 win in its last home game of the year, 24-17, 25-21, 25-20.
“During a time out I reminded the seniors that this the last time they were going to play on this court,” said Governors coach Vicki Crawford. “We just have to stay confident. Hopefully we have two games left, but we need to play like we belong. Tonight we were doubting ourselves a little bit (and they should), because we played great through regionals.”
To start the match, Nelson came out swinging, but could not get out early despite outplaying Northumberland because of missed serves and unforced errors. But with the game tied at eight, the Governors went on an 8-1 run to take a sizable lead that held for the rest of the set. With Ashley Wells and Erika Tolliver pounding the ball into ground, the Indians were never able to get within six points of the home team.
Game two began with a similar back and forth pace, but it lasted considerably and in greater chunks. Each time Northumberland went up by four points, Nelson took the next three to close the gap, and Northumberland broke back each time. After tying the game at 15, Nelson won five of the next six points to hit the home stretch, but the lead was squandered as Wells’ shots kept sailing long and out of bounds. All of the sudden, the set was tied at 20.
“I had to call the timeout and tell Ashley to put the ball in the middle of the court,” Crawford said. “It was open and she hits it so hard. She did and that was that.”
Coming out of the timeout, the Governors regained their composure. Wells went back to work and finished the game with a 5-1 run to take a 2-0 lead.
With their backs against the wall, the Indians started the third and final game by winning the first six points, and held Nelson at bay with a four point lead for most of the first half of the set.
“They made us work hard,” Wells said. “Nobody’s going to drive three-and-a-half hours to lay down and lose. They were ready to play us, but I think we were also ready to give it right back.”
Yet much like Wells did to close game two, Toliver took over to tie the set at 15 before giving her team its first lead of the game after a timeout.
“When Coach Crawford calls a timeout she really means it,” Toliver said. “It was one of those, ‘we need to get out heads in the game’ things. We came out ready to play again.”
The next 10 points were evenly distributed, but the Indians fell behind the pace as the game wound down, this time with middle hitter Madison Carter providing the Governors with the points to wrap up a trip to play in the semifinals.
Wells finished the game with 19 kills and six digs while Toliver, her senior counterpart, was close behind with 16 kills and five digs. Fresh off of earning the Region II player of the year award this weekend in a win over Dogwood District rival William Campbell, Brittany Crawford had 12 digs on the night. Keona Loving finished the game with 36 assists, almost evenly distributing her passes to Toliver and Wells.
“It really doesn’t matter who it goes to,” Loving said. “I love setting for both of them. They both hit it so well that you don’t have to worry about it.”
Both Carter and Mariah McGarry were solid in the middle for the Governors and combined for nine blocks with Carter netting five and McGarry providing four.
Nelson will head to the Siegel Center on Friday at 10:30 a.m. where it will face the winner of Bath County and Castlewood. For the four Governor seniors, Tuesday’s win was the last home game of their careers, and the win that sends them to Richmond is one they will remember fondly.
“It’s such a great feeling and we’ve all worked so hard that we feel like we deserve it,” Brittany Crawford said. “Everything’s just going so well for us. We need to keep working hard though.”
