Raiders senior girls volleyball team captain Courtney Read crashed to the hard gym floor after making a spectacular diving save in the dying seconds of their second game against the Regina Harvest City Reapers in an effort to prolong her team’s season at the regional volleyball championship Nov. 10, but it turned out to be all for not.
Moments later the Reapers would score the deciding point in extra time, winning the second game out of a best of three match-up 28-26 and eliminating the Raiders chances of advancing to the next round in the 2012 West Regional 2A Girls’ Volleyball Championship held Nov. 10 at Davidson School. The loss also spelled the end of the Raiders season.
The Raiders had to win two straight games against the Reapers in order to advance after losing two straight earlier in the day to the Herbert Laurels. They won the first game 25-17, but despite their enthusiasm and determined play at all areas of the court in the second game, they were just unable to put Regina Harvest City away.
“I thought we played really good,” said Read. “We were excited and we really wanted to win because we knew that we had to win the first two games to advance. I think we played the best game that we could have played.”
The Raiders were all over the court in the second game against the Reapers, continually putting themselves in harm’s way by diving for any balls that had a chance of hitting the floor on their side of the net. Middle Taylor Wightman was particularly outstanding, getting to any shots that came her way and stopped any points against with numerous touches in the long volleys that occurred throughout the match.
“It was a little bit heartbreaking (losing in extra time), but what do you do,” said Wightman. “It was good. We played awesome. We couldn’t have asked for a better last game.”
The Reapers went on to lose the third-place game to the Leader Saints, while the Laurels and Asquith Athletics advanced to the final, thus securing themselves each a seat in provincials.
To read more please see the Nov. 19 print edition of The Davidson Leader.