.jpg)
Saturday, Nov. 4 – Continuing its impressive postseason run, the Rockbridge County High School volleyball team won the Region 3C championship by earning a 3-0 home win over Rustburg in the finals on Saturday afternoon in Lexington.
With the 25-16, 25-21, 25-18 victory, their 23rd in a row, the Wildcats (27-1) won their third regional title in program history and their first in five years. Last week, RC won the Valley District tournament.
RC and Rustburg (19-6) will both advance to the Class 3 state quarterfinals, which will take place next Saturday, with the Wildcats playing at home. Check back here for the time and opponent.
Saturday’s win was a special victory for RC’s five seniors, who were freshmen when the Wildcats lost to Rustburg in the regional finals in the spring of 2021, a season postponed from the fall of 2020 due to COVID-19. Rustburg then went on to win back-to-back titles.
On Saturday, the Wildcats, the top seed in the regional tournament, got off to a fast start, playing aggressively to take a 9-3 lead in the first set and then increasing it to double digits briefly.
Seventh-seeded Rustburg trailed 14-8 in the second set before going on a 6-0 run to tie it. The Red Devils briefly took the lead before the Wildcats went up 19-18, and RC wouldn’t trail again in the set, winning the final four points, three on Rebekah Allen’s serve. RC’s Maddie Dahl finished the set with a kill.
In the third set, Rustburg took an 8-6 lead, and the match was close much of the way before the Wildcats went on a 4-0 run to go up 15-12. RC stayed ahead the rest of the way, getting kills from Dahl, McKenzie Burch and Sophie Vaught to finish the match.
Vaught led the Wildcats with 13 kills and had two blocks, while Burch paced RC with 32 assists and added 10 digs. Nala Shearer collected a team-high 26 digs, while Dahl led RC with eight blocks and had nine kills and 14 digs. Also stepping up for the Wildcats were Sophia Perlozzo with nine kills and three digs, Jada Hamilton with five kills and five blocks, Mackenzie McCormick with five blocks and three kills, Rebekah Allen with a team-high five aces and eight digs, and Ava Crocker with six digs.
Leading Rustburg was Nahla Bigham with 10 kills and three blocks, while Sophie Coles had nine kills and nine digs. Emma Blankinship dished out a team-high 26 assists, and Tyleigh Abbott led Rustburg with 20 digs and three aces.
For the full story and photos from the regional tournament, please see our Nov. 8 newspaper.
