To figure out how dominant Nelson County truly was, all you have to do is look up when this team was trailing in the match. It happened once, and in game one. The Governors dropped the first point in their Region B semifinal match on the road against Riverheads, but were never behind after that, as Ashley Wells destroyed the Gladiators in game one, only to have her teammates on defense take over to win the next two sets to complete a 3-0 sweep, 25-11, 25-17, 25-13, and hand the Governors a Group A bid.
“Ashley loves these seniors and wanted to get them to the next level so badly,” said Nelson coach Vicki Crawford. “For the last four years we’ve been beaten in this round. Every year we get here and lose. Brittany Crawford, Keona Loving and Erika Toliver have been on this team since they were sophomores. They haven’t seen state’s and they really wanted to get to that next level in their senior year. So we’ve been talking about it. When we take down the nets we always say, ‘Let’s not make this our last practice.’”
It won’t be until Monday that the Governors have to worry about that scenario again.
In game one, it was like watching the same play over and over. Riverheads did everything it could to avoid Crawford, the libero, but was unsuccesfull. Then Crawford worked the ball over to a waiting Loving who set for Wells at the far left side of the net. The junior’s swings put the ball on the ground like a lead balloon.
Nelson built up a 6-point lead early to force a Riverheads timeout, and followed that up with a 14-6 run to take a 1-0 lead.
“Ashley’s always going to start things out for us because she’s the strongest player,” Toliver said. “But when she gets down or they defend her its up to the rest of the team to really step up and get the job done.”
Having run almost none of its offense in the first set, Riverheads was more successful in actually running its plays in game two, but the defense of Crawford and Loving made it a futile effort. With senior hitter Toliver capitalizing on the Gladiators defense being forced to set up a wall in front of Wells, the Governors again built up an early lead, this time an 8-point separation by the middle of the match. Although Riverheads came on strong at the end of the set, Nelson held fast and went point-for-point with the hosting team until it held a 2-0 lead.
The third and final set was much like the first. Nelson stormed out with a 6-point lead to open the game up and Wells and Toliver continued to hammer away at the defense on the other side of the net. Riverheads made it a five points game at 14-9, but Nelson won 11 of the last 15 points to call it a night.
“We wanted this so bad,” Wells said. “We had our chance, we took it and we annihilated them. We just kept playing, would not lay down. It was no mercy.”
Wells had 19 kills, 12 of which came in the first set. Loving accumulated 35 assists while Crawford had 13 digs.
“I don’t think you can find a libero like this anywhere else,” Wells said of how her overwhelming night came together. “To have her passes with Keona Loving’s sets — me and Erika and the other hitters, we keep taking them down. We thank them for the first pass and the set because we know (those two positions) don’t get a lot of credit. For us hitters, we can’t do anything without them.”
Madison Carter led the way in the middle with four blocks. Toliver came through with 11 kills of her own.
The Governors will face fellow Dogwood District member William Campbell on the road in the Region B championship on Saturday at 7 p.m. It will be the fifth time that these two schools have met. The Generals have won the last two meetings, and three of the previous four with Nelson having won once on the road back in October. A win over Campbell would secure a home game for the Governors in the Group A quarterfinals.
