Photo Gallery: Volleyball - AAA State Semifinals - Loudoun Valley vs. Mills Godwin

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On the Sidelines with Dan Sousa - No Regrets About Making This Trip

A column by VivaLoudoun.com editor Dan Sousa ... who in a former life worked for the Dallas Belles professional volleyball team and had a front row seat in college to some of the best volleyball in the nation with the likes of Hawaii, UCLA, Stanford, San Diego State, etc. all playing at top-ranked Pacific and uber-coach Terry Liskevych!

Richmond (Nov. 20, 2009) - No regrets.

That was the Loudoun Valley High School volleyball team's mantra heading into Thursday night's VHSL AAA state semifinal match with Central Region champion Mills Godwin.

The Vikings (22-5) had started their 2009 season slowly, dropping three of the their first four matches and were 3-4 at one point, but this senior-led group was about to regret their final year in the green and white and the talented bunch has won 19 of 20, including a hard-fought 25-20, 23-25, 25-21, 26-24 win over the Eagles to move into Saturday's AAA state title match with upstart South County (25-3).

No regrets.

The Vikes were going to leave it all on the court Thursday in an attempt to earn the school's first ever AAA state volleyball title after collecting AA titles in 2001, 2002 and 2004. A win over South County Saturday would make Valley one of only five schools in VHSL history to collect four state titles.

The current group of seniors were still in middle school when Valley last won a state title, just seventh graders, and as well as they have played over the past four years, they would still like to measure up the great LV teams of the past. A win Saturday at 2:30 p.m. will cement that recognition, but either way they have earned their place in Viking history.