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Volleyball: River Hill, Reservoir head for 3A East showdown; Marriotts Ridge also wins

The 3A East regional semifinal match between Centennial and River Hill Wednesday night may have generated more hype harkening back to last year's epic battle, if not for the vast differences between the teams' 2010 and 2011 rosters.

Gone are Centennial's Liz Brown and Sam Brostroml, and River Hill's Sarah Okey, Megan Rosburg and Melody Nazari. All five of those players were named first team all-county.

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What River Hill does have going for it this year, though, is a trio of Davis'.

The Hawks defeated Centennial, 25-19, 23-25, 25-22, 25-12, at River Hill Wednesday night as Cassidy Davis, a junior middle hitter, Caitlin Davis, a senior setter, and Kelly Davis, a senior outside hitter, led the way to victory.

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"Its been really fun. I kind of describe us as a mini team inside our own team because there's a rotation where we all three play front row," said Cassidy Davis, who had 13 digs and six kills. "It's really fun to have my sisters to go home and talk about the game and talk strategy with because we all play different positions, there's really no competition, it's just all positive."

Caitlin Davis ran the offense with 23 assists and had 16 digs, and Kelly Davis had 11 kills.

In last year's much anticapated regional championship showdown, the same two teams battled point-for-point, with Centennial eventually prevailing, 25-17, 17-25, 25-22, 23-25, 25-23.

"We all really moved past that because we don't have a lot of the same girls we had last year, so it was very helpful knowing that we're not the same team," Cassidy Davis said. "We really believed in ourselves and didn't want this season to be over, we all really like each other on the team and we just want it to keep on going, so we really came in with a lot of confidence knowing that we could win and move on."

River Hill (15-1) defeated Mt. Hebron in the regional quarterfinals, but lost its first match of the season — to Arundel in the District V title match — before that.

"Having that experience of losing a game helped us grow as a team and become better team players," Cassidy Davis said. "Staying calm and relaxed and just pushing through the hard times and celebrating the good ones."

Amber Wiswell led the Hawks with 16 kills and Kristin Lee had 10 kills and 12 digs. Sydni Horner (15 digs) and Marta Roman (11 digs) also helped River Hill to a strong defensive performance.

River Hill allowed only three aces in the match.

"It was an old Centennial-River Hill match," River Hill coach Lynn Paynter said. "They're relentless, they always come back."

Centennial delivered an inspired performance, hoping to give coach Larry Schofield a playoff victory on his birthday, but the Eagles' plans fell apart in the fourth set.

"We were in every set until that last one when they just kind of lost their focus," Schofield said. "I was able to get some of the younger kids in and give them a little taste of experience for next year."

The Eagles were led by Kristen Ritchie (24 digs, 14-14 serving, 8 kills), Lexi White-Torruellas (23 assists, 10 digs, 13-for-13 serving), Trisha Mockapetris (11 kills, 9 digs, 2 blocks), Cici White Torruellas (7 kills, 2 blocks) and Anna Kearns (9 digs).

River Hill will host Reservoir Friday at 5:30 p.m. for the 3A East regional championship match. Reservoir advanced on Wednesday by sweeping Howard, 25-22, 25-23, 25-16.

The Gators were led by Rachel Smith (9 kills, 5 aces, 15 digs), Kelsea Belt (15 kills, 2 blocks), Iulia Tath (30 assists) and Amanda Gross (13 digs).

2A South

No one was surprised when the 2A South semifinal match between Marriotts Ridge and Glenelg went to a tiebreaking fifth set Wednesday night at Glenelg.

Coming into the match, Glenelg had played in six five-set matches this season, winning all of them, and Marriotts Ridge had won only one of their five five-set matches. In two meetings this season, Glenelg had twice defeated the Mustangs in five sets, volleyball's equivalent of overtime.

"We've been here so many times, we kind of know what to expect, we know how to play this team. We watched a video yesterday of what they do, where they go, so we were pretty ready," said Mustangs senior captain Robin Laux. "Our team was hoping for three games, but..."

Laux led the Mustangs to victory with 21 kills, including the match winner, as Marriotts Ridge defeated Glenelg, 25-20, 23-25, 25-19, 16-25, 15-11.

"We knew it was going to be a tight game … we know they have strong players, we knew it wasn't going to be an easy 'we're going to walk in there and win' situation at all," Marriotts Ridge coach Amanda Olsen said. "I think they just dug deep and didn't want the season to end so they fought back enough to win that fifth game."

Glenelg ended its season with five straight five-set matches, and seven in a nine-match span.

Last year in the regional semifinals, Glenelg led Marriotts Ridge in the fifth set, 13-11, but the Mustangs scored four unanswered points to advance. The Mustangs have won two straight regional titles, and will try for their third in a row Friday evening at second-seeded Calvert.

"They feel like that's what they've got to keep doing and they want to keep doing that," Olsen said. "It just adds that extra motivation that we want to win, we have to beat this team tonight."

Glenelg, which won six regional titles and two state titles between 2001 and 2008, was hoping that this would be the year that they reclaimed the 2A South, though. The Gladiators finished the regular season 11-2, including their first win over Centennial since 2007. They also placed second at the Linganore Invitational, defeating Marriotts Ridge in the tournament playoff round.

"I thought Marriotts Ridge played phenomenal defense tonight, that was really key for them because we hit the ball down pretty well and on many occasions they got it up … they got a lot of balls up that I thought would be down, that was the difference right there, we just came up a little short," Glenelg coach Don Beall said. "That's three five-game matches, 15 games, it's hard to beat somebody three times in a row."

Julie Dixon anchored the Mustangs defense.

"We've been working a lot on trying to read the hitter and if there's a hole in the block, where to go, and there wasn't a lot that she didn't touch," Olsen said. "I think she made a great effort in the back row for us."

Morgan Perry had more than 17 kills for the Gladiators, while Molly Calvert had more than 10. Freshman Sarah Girard and Aly Dillon combined for another 15 kills.

"I'm very proud of my kids, they never quit," said Beall, whose team had its most wins since 2007. "To be able to accomplish what we did this year is pretty good."

Setter Beth Wehr had 42 assists for the Mustangs.

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