Unbeaten Gloucester reaches region title match

VIRGINIA BEACH — Jack Sandahl was scrambling.

Not on the volleyball court, like he usually does, but on every other field and court to find potential teammates.

Gloucester was in danger of not fielding a boys volleyball team this season, but Sandahl recruited some baseball players and the Dukes are thankful for it.

With just seven rostered players, Gloucester is undefeated and advanced to the Class 5 Region A championship match with a 3-1 win over Indian River on Wednesday at Green Run High.

Six players per team are on the court for every volleyball match, so the Dukes can only withstand one injury, and even then things have gotten tight.

“Actually I hurt my neck and had a muscle spasm in the middle of a game,” said Sandahl, a senior outside hitter committed to Barton College. “I couldn’t go out and we didn’t have any subs, so I was just in the back row trying to play through it.”

The gritty determination and perseverance Sandahl has shown this season has come with a softened aura around his teammates, second-year coach Lucas Gray said.

“He was a little bit of a hothead at the beginning of the year last year,” Gray said, “and I really worked with him on his leadership skills to really try to be a guy who brings up the rest of the team even though he is our star. He has changed a lot.”

To Sandahl, age has brought the expected wisdom.

“I became more understanding,” Sandahl said. “Before, I was thinking it’s all their fault, all this and that, but everybody makes mistakes. I finally understood that and I’m trying to grow as a person and understand it even better.”

Nothing but encouragement boomed from Sandahl’s voice against Indian River.

The teams played a close match through the first two sets before Gloucester’s block found its form to stonewall Indian River’s hitters.

The defense set up Sandahl’s explosive offense. He tallied a game-high 29 kills with four blocks, while Quinn Estlack, the Dukes’ other longtime stalwart, delivered 44 assists.

“(Sandahl) can pass and he can swing and he can block,” said Gray, who was the 2016 Daily Press Boys Volleyball Player of the Year as a Menchville senior. “He’s a big guy who gets low and wants to dig the ball as well. He wants to do everything.”

Next on Sandahl’s agenda is a region title. The Dukes will play Cox, which swept Maury 3-0 in the other semifinal, at 6 p.m. today.

“Hard work, that’s the biggest thing,” Sandahl said of the future game plan. “It’s not gonna come from nothing. We’re building this season from the ground up, so we gotta keep on building.”