Volleyball: Off The Net Blog By "NoDinx"

About “Off the Net”: NoDinx believes there is no need to dink when you can crush a volleyball straight down. Off The Net tells you what is happening on the volleyball courts in Loudoun County.

(Oct. 25, 2008) – Wow! That’s the only way to describe the finish to the regular season to the Dulles District season. In the regular season finale, the Heritage Pride handed the Loudoun County Raiders their first regular season defeat in about two and a half years.

This earned the Pride a share of the regular season Dulles 2008 championship, and forced a special playoff match today to determine which team would earn the automatic bid to the Region II playoffs awarded to the regular season champ. It only seems appropriate to have co-champs after the terrific season that both teams had. It’s a shame that the Dulles District only gets two bids to the Region playoffs, there are at least 5 Dulles teams that would do well against the top teams from other districts.

But that’s not the way it works. The Raiders earned one of the Dulles bids by defeating the Pride in a special match held today at Park View High School.

The remaining teams will now have to fight it out over the remaining bid, to be awarded either to the Champion of the District tournament, or to the runner-up if Loudoun County wins it.

The District tournament, sponsored by DigitalSports.com, starts Tuesday night with the quarterfinals being held in the home gym of the top 4 seeds: Loudoun County, Heritage, Potomac Falls, and Briar Woods. Briar Woods earned the right to host Broad Run by winning a coin toss even though both teams tied for fourth. The tournament semi-finals will be held Thursday and the finals on Saturday night, both at Park View. If the tournament is anything like the regular season, it will be filled with exciting matches throughout.

The playoff match today got off to a rousing start, with County pulling out a 31-29 squeaker in the first set. Both teams traded the lead back and forth until the Raiders were finally able to put them away. County had an easier time in the second and third sets despite some apparent issues with their line-up in the second set. Heritage came back at the end of the third set to make it close, but County was not to be denied. The Raiders showed why they are the defending state champs, and played like they wanted to prove they are still the team to beat not just in the Dulles District, but going into the state playoffs.

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