Volleyball season has begun in Lexington County and three teams took place in one of the biggest early season tournaments over the weekend.
River Bluff, Lexington and Dutch Fork all competed in the North-South Invitational in Rock Hill last week.

The tournament consisted of over 40 teams from both North and South Carolina and included some of the best teams from both states. All three Lexington County teams picked up at least one win with River Bluff and Lexington facing off in a quarterfinal match.

However, it was the River Bluff Gators who made the most noise as they made it all the way to the final before losing to Hough (NC) in straight sets.

The Gators breezed through all three of their pool play games against Bishop England, Hilton Head and Orangeburg-Wilkinson. In those three games, they only dropped one set and that was to Bishop England.

Lexington also won all three games of pool play while only dropping a single set. On its way to the knockout round, the team defeated South Pointe, South Iredell (NC) and Myers Park (NC).

Dutch Fork did not make it into the winners bracket as it dropped two of three in pool play. The Silver Foxes won the opening game against North Raleigh Christian (NC) in two sets but lost the last two against Fort Mill and Richland. Both of the losses came in two sets. In the consolation bracket, they lost their only game against Forestview (NC) in two sets.

In championship bracket play, Lexington advanced to the quarterfinal to play River Bluff after dominating Weddington (NC) in two sets (25-8 and 25-16).
In the clash of the two Region IV-5A rivals, River Bluff pulled out the win in two sets. Both sets were incredibly close and River Bluff won by the smallest possible margin in both (25-23 and 26-24).

The win advanced the Gators to the semifinals where they faced Cardinal Newman. River Bluff pulled off the win, yet again, in two sets (25-20 and 25-22) to move on to the championship game against Hough (NC).
Hough proved to be too much for River Bluff and won in two sets 25-18 and 25-14. Gators head coach Bryan Piro was pleased with his team’s performance and the run they made to get to the championship of such a stacked tournament field.

“I love the grit this team is showing. We have a lot of new faces in the starting rotation, but that has not slowed them down from where we’ve been the past few years,” Piro said. “They’re determined to prove a lot of people wrong who think we’re in a rebuilding year since we lost 5 starters from last year’s team. I like to think we’re just reloading with where we left off. The biggest thing I gained from this weekend’s success is that this is a fun team to watch play.”

Piro is alluding to the youth on this roster that only returns two starters from last year’s team and will be one of the smallest groups in 5A this year. Despite the lack of experience on the sophomore heavy roster, River Bluff was able to gel early and impress many with some wins against quality opponents in Rock Hill.

So far this season, sophomore Alexis Jodie has 135 assists through only six contests. Jodie is one of the two returning starters from last season’s team. The other is senior Kylie Wilson, who has 46 kills and 41 digs through the first six games.

Caroline Tucker (71 kills) and Masyn McClanahan (63 digs) have stood out statistically so far as first year starters.

For Lexington, head coach Eric Shick is pleased with his team's fifth place finish  and  likes how it projects for the rest of their season.

"If we can play as a team we will be hard to beat this year.   Our girls love to compete and love to play hard for each other.  I'm excited to see if we can play our best against some of the best teams in the state this year."

Senior Kendall Vinson and junior Jasia Brunson  lead the team in kills with 50 and 41 respectively.  Sara Sykes, Kaitlyn Cannon,  Halle Goodrich and Sydney Fischer have also significantly contributed to the  Wildcats' successful start to the season.