Stories

Championship Caliber: Madison volleyball edges East Rock to win Bull Run district title

Photo by John Berry

Madison County volleyball defensive specialist Lindsay McDaniel has been working on landing a sneaky crosscourt kill all season. 

 

“I’ve worked on that so hard in practice, really placing that in those corners and getting it on the line especially when the defense is out of place or really moving,” McDaniel said.

 

Tuesday night in the Bull Run District title match in front of a raucous Madison home crowd, McDaniel timed it perfectly and connected to the opposite corner to get the Mountaineers back on track after they stumbled to start game five. With help from a monster block by Sarah Bevins right after the McDaniel kill, Madison righted the ship and beat East Rockingham 3-2 with a 15-12 victory in the decisive set. The win builds some serious momentum for the Mountaineers heading into region tournament play.

 

“We’ve done it before against them…we knew we had to come back and we could do it so that’s just what we did,” said Madison’s Abi Tanner.

 

The Mountaineers bounced back from a slow start in the win, overcoming a 25-? Game one win by the Eagles to take a 2-1 lead before East Rock pulled out a victory in game four to force game five. It was, as expected, a see-saw match, a repeat of a regular season clash at East Rock that the Mountaineers also won 3-2 to help force a split of the regular season Bull Run District title. 

 

“For some reason we always go through first game slumps,” McDaniel said. “We just know how important it is to bring the energy back in the second set and keep it going the sets after that. It was just crazy the energy was here.”

 

The hard-fought win was reflective of a season where the Mountaineers have had to overcome a lot of adversity on the injury front, losing Emily Dodson to an ACL tear and Ava Jenkins to a broken finger for a long stretch. With so many different players being forced to step up in those instances, the Mountaineers have built some significant depth and confidence that showed when the chips were down Tuesday night. For instance, Bevins was an absolute monster with 12 kills and seven blocks including the critical game five block that helped reverse that frame’s course. 

 

“I’m so glad for Sarah Bevins and her blocking, she’s been working on that all season and it hasn’t really been her strong suit,” said Madison coach Carrie Hardy. “To see that come to fruition tonight was amazing.”

Bevins was just the tip of the spear on the offensive attack where Mila Myers and Abi Tanner each totaled 11 kills while Margaret Butters had eight kills and Lizzie Burbridge finished with six kills. The Madison block had a huge impact, with Myers adding six blocks to Bevins’ seven while Tanner chipped in another five blocks.

McDaniel got into a groove defensively from the opening point and posted 24 digs, including several sprawling, diving ones against East Rockingham’s fierce front line. Getting a few of those early even with Madison struggling in game one made a huge difference for the sophomore.

 

“Once you’re hot you’re hot,” McDaniel said.

 

Frances Sukley was big-time on the backline as well with 23 digs to go with her 46 assists at setter and a team-high three aces. Bailey Smith came up with another 14 digs and Butters had 15 to go with her eight kills. Tanner rounded out an incredible all-around night where she was named first team All-Bull Run with 17 digs. Butters and McDaniel also earned first team honors while Bevins and Sukley picked up second team nods. 

 

The Mountaineers will now focus on Region 2B play where they’ll start the tournament with a home clash against Page County Thursday night at 7.

 

Comments

comments