It’s a simple toolbox, its contents are a little mysterious and it just showed up Wednesday night, but Madison County’s volleyball team made sure that it had a prominent place in the Region 2B championship trophy photo Wednesday night.
“It has all our names in there, it’s got glue because we stick together, it’s got all sorts of stuff in there that represents us,” said Madison senior Abi Tanner.
The toolbox’s arrival — and some devastating hitting from Tanner, Maggie Butters and Lizzie Burbridge — helped power Madison to a 3-0 sweep of East Rockingham in the Region 2B championship game Wednesday.
“It was actually my assistant coach’s idea, it was something we came up to keep them motivated,” said Madison coach Carrie Hardy. “I can’t really reveal the rest.”
Toolbox mystery aside, Madison was locked in from the start against an East Rockingham team that they’ve now faced four times. The matches with the Eagles are a good barometer for how much a young Madison team has improved this year as East Rock swept Madison 3-0 in the first meeting before the Mountaineers won 3-2 in the second regular season clash and 3-2 in the Bull Run district title match. In the fourth clash, Madison got started fast and didn’t look back en route to the sweep.
“We don’t want to leave any room for mistakes, we want to go so far and we knew we had to do it against them because they’ll catch up to us if we don’t do it fast,” Tanner said.
The Mountaineers will now host a Class 2 state quarterfinal game Saturday night.
Tanner led the Madison attack with 10 kills while Butters and Burbridge each had nine. Those were particularly strong numbers considering the match was a sweep, with Madison winning 25-23, 25-16 and 25-15. Tanner finished off half the attacks she attempted and Burbridge was even more efficient, converting on nine of 12 attempts for a hitting percentage of .750 on the night. Madison pulled off the sweep by aggressively seeking winners rather than relying on East Rockingham’s errors.
“Our middles have been our bread and butter all season but with our outsides really stepping it up and contributing it’s going to really help us,” Hardy said.
Setter Frances Sukley triggered that offensive explosion with 37 assists on the night and had the Mountaineers hitters in good position all night. She also got Mila Myers and Sarah Bevins in on the act with six kills each.
“We knew coming out here we had to have more energy than them to get the job done and pounding those balls really gets the energy up,” Butters said.
Defensively, Tanner had two solo blocks, but most of the work came on the backline where Lindsay McDaniel had 21 digs to lead the way. Sukley chipped in 13 digs and Butters had 10 of her own.
Burbridge also had a big night serving with four aces while Sulkey had three aces on the night. Madison finished with 13 aces as a team.
The Mountaineers now turn their attention to the Class 2 state quarterfinals where they’ll face the Region 2A runner-up King William. Poquoson, the squad that knocked Madison out a year ago in a 3-2 state semifinal battle, swept King William 3-0 in the Region 2A final.
