varsity.roanoke.com

RICHMOND -- Cave Spring wasn't quite able to knock the crown off the head of the reigning Group AA volleyball queen -- but at least the Knights jostled it.

In a spirited and draining VHSL state semifinal of more than two hours at VCU's Siegel Center, the Knights lost 23-25, 25-18, 28-30, 25-23, 15-10 to two-time defending champ Loudoun County.

"Cave Spring is a fighting team; even with our huge height advantage, they gave us all we could handle -- and then some," Loudoun coach Jarod Brown said.

Now hunting for a third straight title, Loudoun faces the Grafton in the final at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday. Grafton defeated E.C. Glass 3-0 on Friday.

Towering and intimidating at the net with a covey of 6-footers, Loudoun is now 25-3 this season and 107-7 during their three straight trips to the state finals.

Cave Spring, state champ in 2003, 2005 and 2006, ends its season at 23-4 with two of the losses to Loudoun.

"Loudoun just had too many weapons and, in the end, that was the difference," Cave Spring coach Tamalyn Tanis said.

"We stuck with them, but they made some adjustments that worked in games four and five."

The Knights sandwiched a 15-game winning streak between a loss to Loudoun on Oct. 10 in Crozet, and the loss to the Raiders.

"You've got to hand it to Cave Spring, I think they learned more from their loss (Oct. 10) to us than we learned from the victory," said Brown.

"Tonight they were tremendous ... as hard as we were hitting the ball, they wouldn't rattle."

With just three seniors and giving away many inches at the net, Cave Spring had the early advantage and kept it interesting to the finish with some spectacular defense.

The most notable defender was senior libero Jocelyn Kellinger, who was credited with 40 digs, many on thunderous kill-shot attempts.

"We went into this game so determined to show everyone how capable we were," said Kellinger, red-eyed with emotion.

"We don't have the height. I know I looked around at the start of the season and didn't see anyone over 5-9, and I was kind of worried.

"But we got here with faith and belief in ourselves."

Sophomore setter Taylor Baumann had 38 assists and 7 kills for the Knights. Morgan Shannon had 14 kills and 15 digs, and Emily Lawrence and Lauren Sledd had 13 and 10 kills, respectively.

Cave Spring loses three seniors -- Kellinger, middle blocker Lawrence and outside hitter Piper Hagan.

The team's tallest player, 5-10 sophomore Shannon Craighead, missed the entire season with a knee injury but plans to return in '10.

"We have a chance to be real good next season," said Tanis. "This year we were the young kids."

Loudoun loses 5-10 all-state senior Juliane Hanna, who has a scholarship to New Mexico, and 6-2 Molly Baldwin, who transferred in as a senior from Notre Dame Academy.

Baldwin can nearly touch the top of the 7-foot-6 net without leaving her feet.

The Raiders rotated three other 6-footers, Katrina Kirby, Emily Vandegrift and Jenna Strange.

"We like to grow 'em tall in Leesburg," said Brown.

Feeding her tall teammates with 52 assists was senior setter Robin Marsala.

Loudoun also had an advantage in fans and noise, with six drums and a set of symbols in the pep band.

Brown became head coach earlier this year when Jenica Matthias left for maternity leave. Matthias has returned (she had the baby carriage near the bench last night) as the assistant.

In game four, Cave Spring battled back from a 23-16 deficit to close to 24-23, before losing. The Knights took a 4-2 lead in the deciding fifth game, but the Raiders wouldn't crack.

"We came in here knowing this could be our last game," said Kellinger. "If we were to go out, we wanted to go out with a bang."