Gaston College takes third place in first-ever Region 10 championship held at campus

Gaston College's beach volleyball team finished third in the first Region 10 championships ever hosted on the school's campus on Saturday.

The Rhinos, the No. 2 seed in the tournament, lost in the semifinals to Sandhills Community College before bouncing back to win the third-place match over Spartanburg Methodist that earned an invitation to the National Junior College Athletic Association championships May 2 through 4 in Huntsville, Ala.

"We're obviously very disappointed by not advancing to the championship game," Gaston College coach Rachel Noreika said. "It was still a good finish and great conference regular season finish. And I'm very pleased with how we bounced back against Spartanburg."

In the semifinals, the Valentina Rodriguez/Cristina Rotola (21-17, 21-10) and Milica Gavric/Bianca Bowland (18-21, 21-18, 15-6) pairs were victorious but the Rhinos suffered a pair of 2-0 losses and the Naomi Hilliard/Maddie Dearing pair suffered heartbreaking 2-1 loss by the scores of 21-14, 11-21, 7-15.

In the third-place match, the Cameryn Reavis/Carli Phillips and Leilani Nolasco/Olivia Ceballos pairs picked up forfeit victories since Spartanburg Methodist only had three pairs. The Rhinos' pair of Dearing/Bowland clinched the victory with a 21-17, 21-10 win while the pairs of Rodriguez/Rotola (21-16) and Gavric/Millea Styles (21-16) had already won their opening sets. (In the tournament competition, The first team to win three sets is victorious and all other matches are stopped.)

(Region 10 tournament, April 20 at Gaston College)
No. 5 Spartanburg Methodist vs. No. 4 Wake Tech - SM 3-1
Spartanburg Methodist vs. No. 1 Richard Bland - Bland 4-0
No. 3 Sandhills CC vs. No. 2 Gaston College - Sandhills 3-2
3rd place - Spartanburg Methodist vs. Gaston College - GC 3-0
Championship - Richard Bland vs. Sandhills CC - Bland 3-0