Girls Volleyball: Loudoun County, Stone Bridge Advance to State Semifinals; Freedom Ends Dream Season in Five Set Loss

(Nov. 16, 2011) - Loudoun County High School and Stone Bridge High School swept their way into the VHSL state semifinals on Tuesday with the Raiders cruising by Chancellor in the AA quarterfinals in Leesburg and the Bulldogs jumping all over James River in the AAA quarterfinals in Ashburn. Freedom had its best season ever curtailed with a heartbreaking 5-set loss to Ocean Lakes in South Riding.


Stone Bridge (28-2) will face undefeated Kellam (31-0) Thursday at 7 p.m. at VCU's Siegel Center in Richmond in a semifinal that is rematch of last year's AAA title game won by Kellam. The other semifinal at 5 p.m. features Atlee (29-3) vs. Ocean Lakes (27-5).

While the Bulldogs were beating James River Tuesday (25-16, 25-20, 25-13), Kellam swept Patrick Henry (25-16, 25-16, 26-12). Atlee dropped the first set but recovered to knock out Northern Region runner-up Woodson (21-25, 25-18, 25-19, 25-14). In the closest match of the night, Freedom (22-6) was up 2-1 and leading, 13-8, in fourth set but Dolphins rallied for the win (25-18, 17-25, 14-25, 25-21, 15-11).

Loudoun County (27-1), with its only loss on the year to Stone Bridge, is shooting for its fifth consecutive AA state title but the Raiders will have to get past a Cave Spring (27-3) team that took them to five sets earlier this year in a tournament. This will be the third straight year that County and Cave Spring have met in the state semifinals with the Raiders sweeping the 2010 semi's and taking the 2009 semi in a heated 5-set match.

The Raiders beat Chancellor Tuesday (25-12, 25-16, 25-15).

Cave Spring, which swept E.C. Glass Tuesday (25-12, 25-5, 25-12) is the last team to beat Loudoun County in the state tournament, taking the Raiders in the 2006 finals -- Loudoun County has won 13 straight state tournament games since.

Loudoun County and Cave Spring will tip off at 6:30 p.m. Friday at VCU's Siegel Center in Richmond. The second semifinal features Hidden Valley (23-6) against Jamestown (26-4). Hidden Valley advanced with a sweep over Rustburg (27-25, 25-12, 25-22) and Jamestown took Region II runner-up Western Albemarle in four sets (25-23, 23-25, 25-15, 25-23). The second semifinal starts at 8:30 p.m. Friday.

The finals are set for Saturday in Richmond at 5 p.m. for AA and 7 p.m. for AAA.