Nation Ford High sweeps Riverside to open playoffs

With a first round sweep of Riverside, the Nation Ford Falcons volleyball team will host a strong Byrnes Rebels team in the second round.

The host Falcons beat Riverside 25-20, 25-14, 25-18 to open the 5A state playoffs. Nation Ford dominated the match. The Warriors never led in the match. The closest they came was tying the second and third sets at times.

“We weren’t playing our best at the beginning,” said head coach Carrie Christian. “We are working on being more disciplined. The goal was to keep pressure on them the entire game.”

Nation Ford went up 7-2 to start the first set. The Warriors rallied and pulled within three at 13-10 and then again at 21-18, but the Falcons kept their composure and didn’t relinquish the lead in winning the first set.

The Falcons pulled away in the second set going up 9-5, but Riverside rallied again to tie the match at 10-10. Nation Ford scored six of the next seven points to take a 16-11 lead before again pulling away.

Nation Ford really made sure Riverside wouldn’t have a chance in the third set by scoring the first 12 points to go up 12-0. Riverside did gather itself to make the score 15-5 and the Falcons started to substitute a lot of their younger players. Riverside did outscore Nation Ford when the substitutes were in there, but the Falcons had a comfortable enough lead to go ahead and take the win despite being outscored 13-10 down the stretch.

This story was originally published October 24, 2017 at 10:39 AM with the headline "Nation Ford High sweeps Riverside to open playoffs."