With both Madison County and George Mason coming in with just one Bull Run District loss each, Thursday’s second meeting between the two was a defacto championship game between the two. In a literal back-and-forth match, the Mountaineers played and won their first five set match of the year, taking down the Mustangs 3-2 (25-20, 22-25, 25-18, 13-25, 15-11).
“It was a tough fourth game for us but we’ve got veteran players so I was confident we would come back out in the fifth with a clean slate and play well,” said Madison coach Carrie Brown. “I rely heavily on the veterans and they just did great tonight.”
After Mason was able to keep the match alive by dominating the fourth set, the fifth and final set was tight right up until the final few points. Mason went up 2-0 but Madison tied things up at 3-3 before going up 9-6 after a Logyn Estes ace. The Mustangs got to within 10-9 and on that point, the match’s longest rally took place with the Mountaineers eeking out the point after an error from Mason. Madison rallied from there to win five of the next seven points and put the match away at 15-11 and pick up its seventh straight match.
“That rally really motivated us to work as hard as we could to put the ball down on the other side,” said Mountaineer junior hitter Allie Burbridge. “We realized that we needed to win this, that this was a big deal.”
The first two sets were close but fairly equal. Madison started out the first set up 14-7 and going up 21-13 only to see Mason rally to within 23-19. The Mountaineers held serve though and took a 1-0 advantage with a 25-20 win.
In the next set, the Mustangs went up 10-5 to force a timeout. Mason stayed out in front with a 20-12 lead but Madison clawed back to make it 24-22. However the Mustangs avoided a 2-0 deficit and tied things up at 1-1 by taking the next point and a 25-22 win.
The third set was the Mountaineers most dominant, but it didn’t start out that way. The Mustangs started out with a 9-4 lead. But a 10-2 run from Madison put the home team up 14-11. Three points later the Mountaineers ripped off a 6-0 run to take a 20-13 lead. It would stick with Madison holding for a 25-18 victory to set up an elimination set in the fourth.
Mason rolled in the fourth starting with a 10-5 lead that quickly became and 18-8 advantage. Unlike in the second set, the Mountaineers were unable to make things interesting late and the Mustangs’ 25-13 win set up the decisive fifth set.
“Mason is a tall team and really good but we’re fortunate enough to be tall as well for the first time in a while,” Brown said. “I think working against that in practice everyday gets you used to playing the taller teams like Mason.”
On the night Burbridge and Emily Dodson led the Madison attack with 11 kills each. Abi Tanner had 10 kills. Ava Jenkins and McKenna Santinga each had five aces. Santinga finished with 37 assists and 20 digs. Emily Russell and Cassie Smith each had 12 digs.
“That’s our first five set game of the year and I thought we did great playing through it,” Brown said. “We’ve got some exciting things ahead of us as we head into tournament and region play.”
Madison (15-3) hosts Strasburg on Tuesday at 7 p.m. for its senior night.
