The Rams were eliminated from the state playoffs in the 2A West Region championship game Tuesday night, falling at West Henderson 25-20, 25-18 and 25-23.
Seniors like Jordan Raye, Jana Matthews and Meme Brown have been a part of Starmount teams that have played in three straight Final Four games.
Last season, the Rams beat West Henderson and advanced to the 2A state title game. This year and in 2006, West Henderson beat them for the West Region crown.
Starmount (22-7) certainly didn't go down without a fight Tuesday night against a team that has yet to lose this season. West Henderson will take a 25-0 record into the state title match Saturday in Raleigh. The Falcons used 11 service aces to keep the Rams off balance. At other times, Starmount struggled to keep balls in play and make good passes.
Brown led the Rams in kills Tuesday night, recording 17, along with three blocks and three aces. Matthews had 11 kills, one block, one ace, one assist and 11 digs. She put all 14 of her serves successfully into play.
Raye, the reigning Mountain Valley 2A Player of the Year, provided 27 assists in her high school volleyball finale. She also had two kills, eight digs, two blocks and an ace.
Taylor Moxley, another senior who earned a starting role this season at libero, provided an ace and 15 digs.
Others getting into the stat book for the Rams included Brett Doss (two kills, one dig, one assist), Rosie Crissman (one kill, one assist), Ashley Wilkins (one ace, five digs) and Cory Hutchens (five digs).
Starmount is 13-3 in state playoff matches the past three seasons. During that span, the Rams have compiled a 79-15 overall record, earning three conference tournament titles, two outright regular season conference titles and one shared regular season conference title (with Forbush in 2006).
Other seniors this season included Rachel Dobson and Lauren Cook.
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Jana Matthews spent part of her Saturday morning watching game tape from Starmount's narrow, five-game victory over North Surry on Oct. 15 in the conference tournament championship match.
"I didn't play my best and we as a team didn't play our best," said Matthews, a senior. "I knew there were things we needed to key on.
"And we did."
Boy, did they ever.
Facing North Surry again in Saturday afternoon's 2A state quarterfinals, the Rams recorded a most convincing 26-24, 25-21 and 25-13 victory. Starmount stole the Greyhounds' thunder after rallying from an early deficit and cruised into the state semifinals for the third consecutive year.
"We played with a lot more intensity and it had a lot to do with the seniors," Matthews said. "This was our last game here at home."
Even though Starmount (22-6) had beaten North Surry all three times they played going into Saturday, the Rams may have felt a bit like underdogs. North Surry had crept closer in each subsequent meeting during the fall, including the Oct. 15 conference finale where Starmount needed a big comeback in game five to win.
The Greyhounds had roared through their side of the state brackets with relative ease, knocking off Forbush in three games last week as well as taking out a West Davidson team that had beaten Starmount in September.
When North Surry jumped to a 12-6 lead in game one Saturday, repeatedly putting up tough blocks against Matthews and fellow all-conference hitting partner Meme Brown, Starmount fans seemed genuinely concerned.
But the Greyhounds' momentum would prove fleeting. Starmount went on a 9-0 run to turn a 13-7 deficit into a 16-13 lead. Ashley Wilkins spurred the rally, repeatedly putting tough-to-handle knuckleball-like serves into play.
"That was certainly the turning point in the match," North Surry coach Shane Slate said. "The last match that we had with Starmount, they made runs like that and we responded. Today, we didn't. I had thought we fixed that problem which had been an issue for us a lot through the season. Obviously, we didn't because that came back and got us."
While North Surry did manage to take leads of 22-20 and 23-21 later in game one, the Rams again refused to fold on their home floor. A stuff by Brinsley Stewart at the net tied the score 23-23, then the Rams won a long rally when North Surry served the ball into the net.
The Greyhounds got the next point to make it 24-24, but Starmount earned the next two points on North Surry errant hits to close out the game.
"We were definitely focused on today's match," Starmount coach Jon Symons said. "We were definitely a lot more intense and we knew what we wanted to do. We had a game plan going in, and they had a game-plan going in, a terrific game plan. But we just went to battle and we happened to make some good plays."
North Surry led by a few points for most of the first half of game two before the Rams went on another run. Starmount took the lead for good at 14-13 with Brown behind the service line. North Surry fought off one game point to pull within 24-21 but served the next ball out to end the set.
It was pretty academic from that point, and Starmount took game three with relative ease.
The Rams shot ahead 4-0 on Wilkins serves. Matthews had three service aces in a row to build a 9-3 advantage, which then grew to 11-3.
Starmount closed the match on a 9-3 run.
Matthews, obviously learned from her pre-game video session, leading the Rams with 18 kills and six aces. She also made 12 digs on defense and had two assists.
Brown finished with 11 kills, five digs, three aces and two blocks. Jordan Raye provided 31 assists in the three games as well as three kills, seven digs and a block.
Stewart and Brett Doss had three kills each, while Rosie Crissman had two kills, including a nice winner that put Starmount up 16-9 in game three.
Wilkins finished with two aces and six digs. Taylor Moxley provided 13 digs, an ace and an assist. Stewart made two blocks. Doss had one block.
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The Rams beat East Davidson in round three of the playoffs last Thursday night, 25-19, 25-13, 15-25, 25-23.
"This was definitely not our best performance," Starmount coach Jon Symons said afterward. "We felt fortunate to even sniff a comeback."
The biggest question is just what happened between games two and three.
The first two sets were textbook Starmount volleyball.
Hitters Meme Brown (18 kills) and Jana Matthews (15 kills) controlled the net. The serving was sharp from a variety of players, and the defense, led by players like Matthews and libero Taylor Moxley, had the range to dig up a lot of balls.
But it was like someone pulled the plug from the Rams' energy tanks before the start of game three. Everything seemed out of sync. and East Davidson shot ahead 6-0 and led the entire way.
Fortunately, the Rams were able to seize their own opportunity without the match going to a fifth game. Brett Doss hit a couple of crucial winners from the left side, helping the Rams pull within a point at 19-18 in game four. Freshman Olivia Gough recorded a kill from the middle for the tying point at 19-19.
East Davidson scored the next three points but Doss again came up with a winner, then Cory Hutchens served an ace. A kill from Matthews, set up by a Rosie Crissman assist, tied the game 22-22.
Again East Davidson broke serve, but then served the ball out for a 23-23 game.
Jordan Raye, usually the Rams setter, recorded her fifth -- and most important -- kill of the night for a 24-23 Starmount lead. After spotting an open space on the other side of the net, she opted to take a left-handed swing rather than set up a teammate.
"In my peripheral vision I saw there was no girl right there, so I nailed it," Raye said. "I watch the ball and the players on the other side. It's exciting and everybody gets pumped up."
Raye then set up the match-clinching point, feeding Matthews, who pounded home a ball that East Davidson couldn't return.
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