FARMVILLE – Playing against what has been a very balanced Virginia Commonwealth Conference slate this year, the Fuqua School volleyball team had victories over teams it was favored against, but the Lady Falcons were coming up just short against the teams in the top of the VCC standings.

That finally changed Tuesday night, as Fuqua defeated Tidewater Academy 3-1 (25-19, 25-9, 23-25, 25-23) at Gilmer Gymnasium.

“I'm extremely happy with what we did tonight,” said FS head coach Lora Smith. “We got off to a good start, and for a while there, I was starting to wonder if we could hang on, but we did.

“After two close losses to Richmond Christian and Christchurch, this is exactly what we needed.”

Tidewater entered the night as the second-place team in the VCC, and quickly fell behind by two sets.

Fuqua junior Charlotte Cave, who earlier in the year had a perfect set in-service against Kenston Forest, set the tone early on in the second game. She took the serve down 3-1, and helped the Lady Falcons (10-5, 7-5 VCC) rattle off 14-straight points in a run that included two aces.

Fuqua was able to trade points with the Lady Warriors (11-4, 10-3) from there, and completed the easy set victory on a powerful kill by senior hitter Jordan Berg.

Fuqua jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the third set, and led 11-5 after a Berg kill, but Tidewater's adjustments began to pay off for the visitors. Fuqua didn't help matters much as service errors began to mount.

The Lady Falcons led 22-20 after a Berg kill gave them the serve, but another service error gave the serve back to Tidewater, which scored four straight points to take the lead for good.

The two teams traded points back-and-forth in the fourth set, with neither team gaining more than a three-point lead.

Trailing 20-17, Berg came up big once again with a powerful kill to gain the serve, an ace and another kill from the back line to give FS a 21-20 lead.

Down 22-21, sophomores Caroline Bryant and Caroline Wiles registered back-to-back kills to give the Lady Falcons a 23-22 lead. Wiles came through again on match point. Her return carried enough forward spin to roll off the hands of the Tidewater receiver, and safely to the ground.

“We've been able to hang in with the top teams in the league, but we hadn't broken through for a match victory. Hopefully, this is the point of the season we'll be able to look back at and say 'that's where things came together.'”

Berg led the Lady Falcons with 18 kills, while Cave had 24 service points, two kills and four aces. Tatum Davis registered ten points and three aces, while Wiles and Bryant registered eight and five kills, respectively.

With the toughest part of its schedule over, Fuqua has one last major test, before heading into the tournament. The Lady Falcons were scheduled to travel to Amelia Academy on Thursday night, before traveling to Southampton on Monday. The Lady Falcons will wrap up the regular-season at home against BS-Huguenot (10/26) and Brunswick (10/28) next week.

“Monday is a big, big game for us in terms of positioning to be in the top four, which would get us a home match in the VCC Tournament. A strong finish will put us in good position heading into the tournament.”