Fort Advances to State Semis With 3-0 Victory

FORT DEFIANCE – Fort Defiance's Redemption Tour is one stop away from reaching its final destination … the Salem Civic Center.

The unbeaten Indians shook off a choppy performance Saturday night, advancing to the Class 2 state volleyball semifinals after ousting the Amelia County Raiders 25-16, 25-15, 25-17 in the quarterfinal round.

Fort (25-0) has Region 2B foe Clarke County coming back to the Don Landes Gymnasium at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday where a berth in the championship is on the line. The Indians swept the Eagles on Tuesday in the regional title match. Clarke earned another shot at Fort by eliminating Poquoson 25-23, 17-25, 25-19, 27-25 in their quarterfinal clash.

Fort and Clarke have been getting quite cozy with each other over the last two seasons. After the Eagles won the regional title at Fort, the Indians went to Berryville and dumped the home team for a trip to state championship. One year later, the roles could be reversed with Clarke eager to end Fort's season.

“We are excited to play Clarke again, and I am sure they feel the same way,” Fort sensation Maecy Ann Frizzelle said. “They will come in here as underdogs just like we were last year when we went up there.”

Staying at home was big for the senior. If Poquoson had won, Fort would be hitting the road.

“We are glad we don't have to travel and are able to play in front of our fans,” she said.

The Indians have been dreaming for a full year of getting back to Salem, and getting another shot at winning it all. Ridgeview dashed those dreams last season, and Fort is in no mood for a repeat outcome.

“Winning keeps you going,” Frizzelle said. “We hold each other accountable and push one another in practice. Our goal since the loss last year has been to get back to the state title match and win it. We don't want to be in the position of losers again.”

Fort has proven its laser-focused mindset all season, sweeping 23 of 25 matches. The Indians have dropped only three sets, the last two to Rockbridge County on September 9 when the Wildcats took them to the full five. Since then there have been 17-straight sweeps.

But that laser-focus was missing against Amelia, and it will have to be quickly found again before Tuesday. Although the match lasted only 75 minutes and there was never any doubt as to the outcome, the Indians didn't display their normal crispness. They had eight service errors in the first two sets and an array of hitting mistakes throughout.

“We have to tighten a lot of things up by Tuesday,” Fort head coach Amber Pitsenbarger said. “We haven't been pushed a lot this season, and you know it's only going to be tougher the rest of the way. We have to play harder than we did tonight, but give credit to Amelia for its defense in getting us out of our rhythm at times.

“We were definitely rooting for Clarke, so we can play in front of our great crowd support,” she said. “We are going to need everyone Tuesday.”

Fort has to play Clarke again before the title match because Class 1 and Class 2 don't cross-bracket in the state semifinals like the other four classes in the state. Region 2B administrators have tried to get the change, but has been voted down by other regions, citing the travel distances if the southwest schools have to make trips to the eastern part of the state.

Fort and Amelia (18-5) were no strangers to each other as they had met at the Fluvanna County Invitational in late August, and the Indians also swept in the best-of-3 set format. The Raiders lost three times at the event, but didn't lose again until Poquoson beat them in the Region 2A championship.

The Indians surged to a 16-6 lead in the first set before lapsing into a funk that allowed Amelia to cut the deficit to 18-16 after a 10-2 run.

But Fort regrouped by taking advantage of hitting mistakes by the Raiders to score the last seven points, which Frizzelle capped with a set-winning kill.

The second set followed the same pattern where the Indians took a big lead at 12-3 on three kills from Frizzelle, but Amelia battled back to 21-15 before Madison Bragg's back-to-back aces finished off a closing 4-0 run.

With Fort nursing a slim 15-14 lead in the third set, the Indians closed out the match with a 10-3 blitz to finish off the pesky Amelia team out of the James River District.

“That wasn't our normal play out there,” said Frizzelle, who uncharacteristically was getting her smashes blocked at the net and returned to sender at times. “Our energy was low the whole time. We can't be falling into any bad habits at this point.”

As usual, Frizzelle led the way with 14 kills and 13 digs. Caroline Hanger had nine kills, 10 digs and two aces, while Livia Clinedinst added five kills. Norah Anderson contributed 11 digs and two aces. Bragg had her two aces to end the second set, and Alexis Miller and Autumn Weber each had five digs.