The River Ridge District volleyball tournament is being held this week but the Salem High girls are not included despite finishing the regular season with two district wins.
Only the top four teams in the standings are included in the tournament, and Salem finished fifth with a 2-8 district record. Top seeded Hidden Valley hosted fourth seeded Christiansburg on Tuesday while second seeded Patrick Henry played host to Blacksburg. The two winners will meet tonight for the district championship at the site of the highest remaining seed.
While Salem is not in the district tournament, the Spartans will be in the Region 4D tournament next week. Hidden Valley and Christiansburg are Class 3 schools and PH is Class 5 so they won’t be competing against the Spartans in the regional, for Class 4 teams.
Salem finished the regular season with an overall record of 8-12 after back-to-back district wins over Pulaski County last week in the “left out bowl.” On Wednesday night the Spartans took a three set win in a match held at South Salem Elementary School, 25-17, 25-21 and 25-9. Reese Redford had six aces and 11 digs, Kennedy Scales had eight kills and 10 digs and Ella Walker had eight kills and a couple blocks.
A night later the same two played in Dublin and Salem won again, although this time it took the Spartans five sets. Salem won 25-18, 25-10, 19-25, 19-25 and 15-2.
Walker had 16 kills in this one to go with four blocks. Scales had eight kills, 20 digs and five aces, Makenzie Board had 21 assists and six aces and Redford had 19 digs, six aces and four kills.
The Spartans hope to use that momentum to make some noise in next week’s regional once the pairings are decided.
