BLOUNTSTOWN, Fla. (WMBB) – The Blountstown and Liberty County volleyball teams will meet for the fourth time this season in the Class 1A Region 2 Final on Tuesday night.
The Tigers and Bulldogs will face off with a ticket to the Final Four on the line.
Blountstown defeated Liberty County twice in the regular season, but the Bulldogs won their most recent meeting in the Class 1A District 3 Championship game.
The Tiger’s regular season domination was enough to grant them the No. 1 seed in the region and home-court advantage till the State Semifinals.
Blountstown head coach, Leigh Ann Summers said emotions and tensions will certainly be high in a match that features 16 total seniors trying to keep their high school careers going.
“Regardless, it’s the last time they’ll play in our gym,” Summers said. And just kind of that in your mindset can kind of it can make you a little bit tense. It can make you a little bit tight and Liberty County is going to be feeling the same thing with their seniors as well. You know, we’re all fighting for an extra day, you’re fighting for the extra practice, an extra game.”
The winner of the Class 1A Region 2 Final has won the previous 10 state championships (Sneads 9, Liberty County 1) so the winner of this match will certainly be the favorite to win it all this year.
Coach Summers said the match is more like the state championship game than the actual state championship game.
“In the last ten years that I’ve been here, any time that you face Sneads at the end of the year, you face Liberty County at the end of the year, it feels like a state championship because that’s the atmosphere, Summers said. “That is the love that both those communities, all these communities have for the sport of volleyball and for their teams and they just bring that. You don’t see it anywhere else. You won’t see the atmosphere that we will have at our game down at State either.”
Blountstown and Liberty County are set for a 6:00 p.m. CST first-serve on Tuesday, October 31. The Blountstown gymnasium will be open to the public one hour prior at 5:00 p.m. CST.
