Goochland libero Sydney Alvis made nearly every conceivable play for the Bulldogs Thursday night.
Sprint directly backwards and dive before smashing the ball over your shoulder? Check.
A hard dive to the left with a one hand punch to force it back into play? Check.
Diving forward from a standing position and fully extending while smashing into the floor to prevent an ace? Check.
Alvis made an astonishing 52 digs, a career high, to power a strong defensive performance by Goochland Thursday night but it wasn’t enough as Riverheads answered the call with its own strong defensive performance to snag a 3-1 victory in the Region 2A East semifinals.
“For a second there I thought they might give in but they didn’t,” said Riverheads coach Ruth Thompson. “They decided to pull it together and fight and they fought hard. That’s the hardest I’ve seen them play.”
Riverheads had to bounce back after a 28-26 Goochland win in game one, and reeled off three straight victories to survive and advance.
Goochland, who romped through the James River District and the rest of its schedule to the tune of a 22-1 record coming into the match, struggled late to match Riverheads as the Gladiators started to surge. Riverheads won the fourth game 25-16.
“We don’t play matches like that all season long so we don’t get an opportunity to really practice that,” said Goochland coach Jennifer Erixon. “We’ve only gone four games one time all season and five games one time so when it comes to the conditioning factor playing a high level game like that they run out of gas unfortunately. A lot of them were tired and I can’t fault them for that.”
Despite some fatigue, the Bulldogs gave unbeaten Riverheads all it could handle, with Alvis doing a lot of the heavy lifting. She seemed to get every ball up, frustrating Riverheads’ powerful array of hitters throughout.
“We play a rotational defense that puts a lot of pressure on Sydney because it gives her two thirds of the court to cover and she does a fantastic job of doing that,” Erixon said. “That’s why we switched to a rotational defense from a perimeter defense where she didn’t have as much responsibility because she can handle that pressure, that’s how she functions.”
Eventually Riverheads standout Mariah Clark’s attacking abilities took over though as she rang up 22 kills for the Gladiators. Nyssa Stapleton also checked in with 12 digs.
Defensively Riverheads was far from shabby either, with Courtney Olliver finishing with 335 digs while Brooke Taylor had 30. Setter Kelly Coffey had 48 assists and three kills of her own.
On the flip side, Goochland got a big performance by Maddy Parker, who has come on strong of late and had 13 kills and nine digs against RHS. Madelyn Ott had a strong all around game with nine kills, seven blocks and four digs while Erin Rodriguez checked in with seven kills and 17 digs.
Josie Summitt, Goochland’s setter, exploded for 41 assists and 17 digs in a steady perfomance by the junior.
“She has come so far from last year,” Erixon said. “She played club last year and she didn’t set but it definitely helped her defense because her defense has come really far. When she sets she has such soft hands and can pretty much move the ball wherever. She’s definitely come really far.”
Riverheads advances to the state semifinals where they’ll face Luray.
