For the 3rd straight year, the Region 5-5A volleyball title comes down to 1 match and the same 2 archrivals.
River Bluff and Lexington will face each other for the 2nd time this season at 7 pm Thursday. This time, the scene shifts to the Lady Wildcats' home gymnasium where they look to avenge a 5-set loss on Oct. 1 in The Swamp. 
Despite the loss, the tiebreakers to determine the top seed out of the region actually work to the advantage of the defending 2-time region champion Lady Wildcats. They can clinch the region title by winning in 4 or less sets and possibly by point differential in the 2 matches with the Lady Gators.
River Bluff (33-7, 7-0) currently holds a 4-point advantage from the first meeting over Lexington (30-7, 6-1). A 3rd tiebreaker based on point differential against all region opponents can also come into play. 
Both head coaches believe their teams need to play better than the first time. 
"Basically, we have to play better than we did last time in the 5th set," Lexington head coach Eric Shick said. "I actually thought we played well except for the letdown we had in the 5th set.  I think we came out with a mindset not ready to finish and made too many passing and hitting errors at the beginning of the set. 
"This happens after you beat a team in a 4th set so easily. (25-14) You feel that you should have the momentum going into the 5th, but it can make you become complacent.  Whereas (River Bluff) just lost the set and so their mindset was wanting to play better to win.  Hopefully, we won't make the same mistake again."
"To be successful, we need to limit our errors," River Bluff head coach Bryan Piro said. "The games against Lexington are always pretty close and always comes down to errors.  Our first meeting, Lexington had 10 more digs, a better serve Receive rating and 15 more assists than us.  We hit the same percentage for the match but we had less errors than they did and found a way to win in 5 sets. 
"We know it'll be a tough game and we're excited about playing them again.  Should be a really fun match to watch." 

River Bluff 3, White Knoll 0 
The Lady Gators put themselves in position to clinch a share of the Region 5-5A title with Tuesday's win over the Lady Timberwolves.
The scores were 25-9, 25-15, 25-23.
River Bluff (33-7, 7-0) can clinch the region title outright with a win Thursday at Lexington. Meanwhile, White Knoll (9-9-1, 2-4) plays host Wednesday to Dutch Fork in a battle for 3rd place.