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The Rockbridge County High School volleyball team saw a tremendous season draw to a close with a 3-2 loss to Christiansburg in the VHSL Class 3 state quarterfinals in Lexington on Saturday afternoon.
The Blue Demons (22-5) rallied from a 2-0 deficit to claim a 23-25, 17-25, 25-15, 25-17, 15-9 victory over the Wildcats (27-2), advancing to face Region 3D rival Hidden Valley in last night’s semifinal round in Roanoke.
Ela Shepherd racked up 17 kills, 23 assists, eight blocks and nine digs to pace Christiansburg on Saturday. Braelynn Williams posted 13 blocks and eight kills for the Blue Demons, and Addison Reasor added 13 kills.
Sophie Vaught secured a team-high 14 kills and served up three aces for the ’Cats. Maddie Dahl recorded 12 kills, 17 digs and three aces for RC, while McKenzie Burch totaled 37 assists, 13 digs and four kills.
Despite the sting of suffering a close-run defeat just one step away from what would have been the program’s first-ever state semifinal appearance – RC also lost in the quarterfinal round in 2017 and 2018, both times to Hidden Valley – the Wildcats were holding their heads high after the match.
“We haven’t done this in five years,” said Burch, whose big sister Hannah was a star on the 2017 squad. “It feels really good to go do the same thing that [Hannah] did. I wish we went a little farther, but I’m incredibly proud of the progress that everyone’s made this season.”
Christiansburg quite literally blocked RC’s path to the semifinals. Led by the baker’s dozen blocks from Williams – who had four solo efforts and nine assisted blocks, teaming up with Shepherd on eight different occasions – the Blue Demons recorded 16 team blocks to keep the Wildcats’ offense at bay.
“Our block was very incredible,” Christiansburg head coach Lisa Dalton said. “We have a huge block on the front [row] all the time, and it’s great.”
The ’Cats had prepared for the Blue Demons’ proficiency in the blocking game – but facing it in person proved to be an insurmountable obstacle.
“Coming into it, we knew that their block was strong,” RC head coach Kassidy Beagan said. “At the end of the day, we just couldn’t get around it. We were working hard to, but I think it was just really difficult for us to execute there.”
Still, the Wildcats got off to a dream start. Vaught came out firing in the opener, notching six kills in what turned out to be the closest set of the afternoon. The senior’s sixth kill of the frame gave RC a 23-19 lead, and – after two kills from Reasor and a block from Reasor and Katy Hoover pulled the Blue Demons to within 23-22 – the teams traded errors before Dahl finished things off with a kill.
The ’Cats had the upper hand for most of the second set, jumping out to a 16-8 lead on back-to-back kills from Sophia Perlozzo. Christiansburg rallied to within 17-14 on consecutive assisted blocks from Williams and Shepherd, but a 5-0 Wildcat run pushed the margin to 23-15 and put the set out of reach.
Perlozzo and Dahl each had four kills in the second stanza, and Vaught notched three more. Burch tallied 23 assists across the first two sets, and the Wildcats appeared to be cruising to a win.
“I felt like we came out with high intensity,” Burch said. “Everyone was just on their game and playing together, playing as a team – really looking across the court and seeing where we could put the ball.”
But the complexion of the match changed almost in the blink of an eye. The Blue Demons surged to an early 9-3 advantage in the third set, never letting the ’Cats get any closer than four points the rest of the way.
Shepherd was at the center of the offensive onslaught from Christiansburg, collecting five kills and five assists in the frame. The sophomore captain’s versatility – on Saturday, she seemed equally comfortable setting, swinging, blocking and defending – is a big part of why the Blue Demons have made it this far.
“Ela Shepherd is one of the hardest workers on our team, and she definitely helps keep us together,” Dalton said. “Where she hits and sets is amazing.”
The fourth set brought more of the same, despite a better start from RC. The Wildcats led 9-8 on an ace from Burch, but the Blue Demons countered with a 5-1 spurt to go in front for good at 13-10. Leading 18-14 later in the stanza, Christiansburg used another 5-1 stretch to gain separation, and a Shepherd ace would level the match at 2-2.
The Blue Demons’ momentum carried over into the decider, with a block and a kill from Williams on consecutive points giving the visitors a 9-3 lead. But there was still some fight left in the Wildcats, who reeled off five straight points, using a Nala Shearer ace and a Vaught kill to pull within one at 9-8.
“It’s happened to us quite a bit during the season, where we fall behind and we catch back up – usually with our serves; we have a pretty tough serving team – and that’s what we were trying to do,” Beagan said. “We almost had the comeback, but I think we just fell behind there offensively.”
Indeed, the deficit proved to be too much for RC to overcome. Three straight Shepherd kills swung the momentum back in Christiansburg’s favor, and the Blue Demons won six of the final seven points to complete their comeback victory.
Accompanied by a few strategic tweaks, Dalton’s message to her team after the second set was straightforward but effective.
“We just told them to get fired up and have no regrets. We’ve come back before, and we can do it again,” the Christiansburg coach said. “We made a few little adjustments on defense and blocking – and being more aggressive on offense. … They got it done; they got fired up.”
Perlozzo finished with 10 kills for the Wildcats. Shearer paced the RC defense with 20 digs, and Rebekah Allen notched 10 digs.
Blythe Akers posted 10 kills for the Blue Demons. Blair Self tallied 16 assists and 13 digs for Christiansburg, and Reese Hall collected 20 digs and eight assists.
The loss snapped a 23-game winning streak for the Wildcats. RC’s only other defeat of the season was a 2-1 setback to Liberty Christian Academy in a tournament at Fluvanna County back on Aug. 26. After winning the Valley District regular-season and tournament titles, the ’Cats claimed the Region 3C championship in dominant fashion, losing just one set in three regional tournament matches.
With 27 wins, the Wildcats set a new program record for victories in a season.
So while feeling the heartbreak of coming tantalizingly close to another piece of program history, the Wildcats have plenty of reasons to take pride in what happened on the court this fall.
“We’ve accomplished so much as a team. We’ve set a lot of school records with individual stats and whatnot,” Beagan said. “Just overcoming all the adversity that we’ve been facing as a team – and as individuals on the team – I mean, I just can’t be more proud of them.”
