CHARLESTON – The Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center has not been a friendly environment for the Greenbrier West volleyball team over their previous four state tournament trips.
Unfortunately for the Cavaliers trip five had a similar result as they fell 3-0 to Gilmer County in Friday’s quarterfinal match.
“It seems like every time we come into this arena, it is a lot of nerves. This was not the same team that I have seen play before,” Greenbrier West head coach Cindy Nutter said. “It seems like with the louder environment and everything else going on, they just don’t hear each other. They aren’t used to this type of floor. It just really different for them.”
After a slow start, Greenbrier West trailed only by one point at 8-7 coming out of a Gilmer timeout. The Titans responded with a 14-6 spurt out of the timeout to secure a 25-15 win.
Set two was a tight battle that saw West come back within a point at 24-23 after trailing by five points in the middle of the match.
Gilmer scored the final point for a 25-23 win.
“I think it could have been a different match if we could have won that second set,” Nutter said, “Our serves were off today and we just had a lot communication errors. When you make mistakes they will put the ball back across and they will find your holes.”
Gilmer County head coach Chelsea Stickelman also agreed that the win in set two was crucial for her team.
“The second set is always crucial for us,” Stickelman said. “The second set seems to make the match for us. We came out slow, so for us to come back and regain our momentum was really key.”
The Titans closed out the match with a 25-18 win to advance to the semifinal round against No. 1 seed Ritchie County.
Small snip-it of the choir from @GwhsCavaliers who performed our National Anthem before the morning session of the state Volleyball 🏐 Tournament this morning…. what an awesome job!!!#wvprepvb pic.twitter.com/FmsQLvh5lG
— Rusty Udy (@rusman1981) November 12, 2021
