Lady Govs sweep Altavista for win

Nelson County’s Lady Governors volleyball team will play in the Region B volleyball tournament this week after winning the Dogwood District tournament last week.

The Lady Governors earned the right to travel this week to the James River District champion, Randolph-Henry, by winning its second consecutive district tournament title.

In the quarterfinals, Nelson swept Chatham. Then in the semifinals, the Lady Governors pulled off a startling comeback against William Campbell in Naruna.

The Generals won the first two games only to have the Lady Governors dominate the next three games and take the match 21-25, 22-25, 25-14, 25-18 and 15-11.  The Dogwood District’s regular season champ, Altavista, also advanced to the district tournament championship match.

“I knew if we would just start hitting the ball, we could change momentum to our side,” Lady Governors coach Vicki Crawford said. “We just weren’t hitting the ball like us.

“I told them we have a lot of talent and it would be a doggone shame if we didn’t make it to the (region tournament).”

The first two games couldn’t have been closer as the teams repeatedly traded the lead, and neither team built more than a four-point lead.

But in the third game, Nelson County used a pair of four-point runs to jump out to an early 10-3 lead and never looked back.

“I knew it couldn’t end here,” Nelson middle blocker Tashia Crawford said. “We were playing it really safe at the beginning. We needed to bring it and hit like we do in practice. We had to play to win. We had to hit, hit, hit. We had to play our game.”

“I told the girls to keep their heads up,” William Campbell coach Brad Harper said. “Karma can kind of be hard to overcome. We did the same thing to them earlier. They had one coming and tonight, it was their night.”

“(The Colonels) are our rivals,” Crawford said. “We knew we had them in the beginning but we let them get the best of us those last three games by not playing our game.”

Ashley Wells paced Nelson on offense with 23 assists and two aces. Erika Toliver added 10 kills and Keona Loving had 53 assists.

In the Dogwood District tournament championship match last Thursday in Altavista, the Lady Govs beat the Colonels.

Nelson County simply swept aside Altavista, 25-15, 25-20, and 25-20.

The victory came after the Lady Governors had lost a tough match a little over a week earlier in Altavista. The Lady Govs took the first two games, but the Colonels swept the last three.

Then, against William Campbell, the Lady Governors lost the first two but rallied for the win in five games.

“I thought this was really one of our best efforts,” Crawford said. “I think the girls carried that momentum from (Wednesday’s) match with William Campbell into the game. They were cheering and bouncing and that momentum just carried over.”

“They beat us,” Altavista coach Debra Spencer said. “They were the better team on the floor tonight. I don’t know how else to put it.”

“We are going to build on this,” Crawford said. “We’ve played really well this week. We know it’s going to be really tough and we are going to take one game at a time.”

Nelson County (16-3) maintained a comfortable lead throughout the first two games. Altavista did make a run early in the third game and eventually built a 10-5 lead, but the Lady Governors fought back to tie the game at 17 and pulled away to finish off the match.

Wells led the Lady Governors with 13 kills. Erika Toliver added nine kills and Tashia Crawford added nine kills and eight blocks.

“It’s going to be tough (next week),” Toliver said. “But we are going to do what we do best. We are going to stick together and be who we are.”