DATE: Friday, November 14, 1997             TAG: 9711140902

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY BRIAN J. FRENCH, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: MECHANICSVILLE, VA.               LENGTH:   40 lines

F. COLONIAL WILL FACE MONACAN IN AAA BOYS VOLLEYBALL FINAL COX LOSES IN 5 GAMES, PREVENTING AN ALL-BEACH CHAMPIONSHIP.

So much for the rubber match.

The prospects of a fifth meeting between Cox and First Colonial in the Group AAA boys volleyball final died when Cox fell to Central Region runner-up Monacan 16-14, 7-15, 11-15, 15-8, 15-11 in the semifinal round Thursday at Atlee High School. The Falcons and Patriots split four previous meetings.

First Colonial kept up its end of the bargain, rallying to hand Clover Hill its first loss of the season 15-13, 13-15, 3-15, 15-9, 15-9. This sets up Saturday's final between the Patriots and Chiefs at 1 p.m., with the winner becoming the state's first official Group AAA champion.

``We knew we could do what we had to do,'' First Colonial hitter Cam Land said. ``We play the way we can play, we can come from behind.''

The Patriots scored nine straight points in the first set en route to the win before falling in the next two games. But trailing 9-7 in the fourth game, First Colonial cut down on its mental errors and began to pick up power on its kills.

``Nobody was tired at the end,'' Land said. ``It was pure adrenalin.''

In the first match of the night, Monacan completed an improbable rally from a two-games-to-one deficit on the strength of equally unlikely rallies in the final two games.

The Chiefs (16-3) scored the final 13 points in the fourth game to come back from a 8-2 deficit in the fourth game, then, down 11-4, scoring the final 11 points of the match.

``That's Monacan heart for you,'' Chiefs coach Bill Reeves said. ``We may not always have the most talent out on the court, but we'll play our butts off every time.''

After falling behind 12-3 in the first game, the Falcons started the next four games with runs of 11-2, 7-0, 8-2 and 11-4, respectively, but were unable to finish off the Chiefs.

``Monacan's one of the best digging teams we've seen,'' Falcons coach Bruce Stewart said. ``We were up and down the whole game, but we couldn't get it going in the end.''

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