All season, the River Bluff volleyball team has prepared to take a different road through the Class 5A playoffs.

Instead of defending their Lower State title, the Lady Gators have to go through what head coach Bryan Piro called the "gauntlet' of the Upper State bracket.

River Bluff managed to take down its first round challenger Hillcrest in straight sets. The scores were 25-9, 25-14, 25-9.

The Lady Gators thrived off of effective serving from Kylie Wilson and Caitlin Kelly, a wall-like defense at the net from All-State selection Sarah Lawrence, Alexis Jodie and Mahogany Matthews and timely digs and spikes for points from Region 4-5A Player of the Year Paige Spanbauer and Ava  Reeves.

"We have a lot of trust in our defense," Piro said. "We have some really good defensive players who just get after it. They just have an intensity on the court just to keep those balls up. And our libero, we have a phenomenal libero that reads really well and is always in the right spot."

River Bluff (37-5) will play host Oct. 25 to Clover, which defeated Boiling Springs in three sets.

"The gauntlet of the Upper State playoffs is rough," Piro said. "It's tough. We just scheduled not knowing that we were going to get put in the Upper State, but we did schedule all the Upper State team the regular season, which does help. I mean we played Mauldin a couple of time. We played Pickens in tournaments, played Dorman, played Nation Ford five times this year. It does set us up in a position to hopefully be successful as we go into the playoffs and see them as we continue to go further and deeper into the playoffs."

Lexington 3, Cane Bay 0 (25-12, 25-5, 25-6)

The Wildcats will either play host to St. James or travel to Summerville Oct. 25 for the second round.

Dutch Fork 3, Socastee 0 (25-25, 28-26, 25-20)

The Silver Foxes pulled off the road win and will travel to Wando Oct. 25.

Gilbert 3, Beaufort 0 (25-10, 25-10, 25-16)

The Lady Indians will travel Oct. 24 to Waccamaw for the second round of the Class 3A playoffs.

Pelion 3, Eau Claire 0

The Lady Panthers will travel Oct. 25 to Liberty, a first-round winner over Abbeville.

Mauldin 3, Chapin 0 (25-16, 25-14, 25-10)

Hanahan 3, Brookland-Cayce (23-25, 22-25, 16-25)

Tennis Playoffs

Mauldin 5, Dutch Fork 1
Socastee 6, River Bluff 0
North Myrtle Beach 4, Irmo 2