Both Fort Mill and Nation Ford won their first round 5A volleyball playoff games Wednesday, but had to take different paths to get there.
Nation Ford cruised in three sets winning over Spring Valley, while Fort Mill was in a dogfight against Rock Hill winning in five sets 3-2 (25-23, 16-25, 23-25, 25-21, 15-8).
Fort Mill opened the playoffs as a No. 3 seed out of their region and traveled across the Catawba River to Rock Hill High. Jackets head coach Jim Seidel knew his team was going to have their hands full facing a No. 2 seed in the Bearcats.
“Wow,” he said, after the five-set match. “You have to fight hard against a team like that.”
Fort Mill knew it was going to be in for a nail biter as they went back and forth against Rock Hill in the opening set. The two teams tied nine different occasions in the first set as each team swapped the lead on multiple occasions. The Jackets took a slight edge going up 14-12, but Rock Hill would rebound to gain an 18-16 lead. Fort Mill would grab the lead back at 23-22 forcing Rock Hill to take a time out. The Bearcats would tie the match at 23-23, but Fort Mill would then win the next two points to take the opening set.
Rock Hill made the adjustments they needed to win the next two sets. The Bearcats controlled the second set and took a 5-3 lead early and never let it go to get the 25-16 win and tie the match at 1-1. Fort Mill was able to play better in the third set and like the first set, each team fought through multiple ties with Rock Hill keeping a slight edge to go up 18-15 before a Jackets time out.
Coming out of the time out, Fort Mill scored four of the next five points and tied the set at 19-19. They would take the lead at 23-22 forcing the Bearcats to call a time out and regroup. Rock Hill came out of the time out and scored three consecutive points to grab a 25-23 win and go up 2-1 putting the Jackets backs up against the wall.
Seidel said after going down 2-1 in the best of 5 sets, he had a talk with his team.
“We have seven seniors on this team and I looked at them and told them all ‘you aren’t done,’” he said. “I looked at all seven of them and told them that. We had to get back to the basic of serving and passing.”
Fort Mill did just that and battled back to tie the match at 2-2 with a fourth set win 25-21. Just as Rock Hill was strong in the third set, Fort Mill was just as strong and took a 7-5 lead and never relinquished it in the set. They then carried that momentum into the fifth and final set as they went up 2-1 to open up the set and never trailed afterwards to win 15-8.
The win puts Fort Mill at 18-7 overall on the season and takes them to the second round, which will be on the road facing the top ranked team in the state in Dorman on Monday, Oct. 25.
Nation Ford sweeps Spring Valley
There wasn’t much competition for the Falcons as they powered their way over Spring Valley in the opening round Wednesday night at home as Nation Ford won 3-0 (25-17, 25-7, 25-10).
The win now puts the Falcons at 25-11-1 on the season as they will again host, this time with the JL Mann Patriots coming to town, in the second round Monday, Oct. 25. JL Mann is currently ranked eighth in 5A with Nation Ford coming in ranked sixth in 5A, which leads to a better match-up.
The Patriots defeated Byrnes in the opening round Wednesday 3-0 to set up their match against the Falcons.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
