The No. 1 seed Atlee High School boys volleyball team completed a repeat as Capital District champions last Wednesday, downing upstart Lee-Davis High School 3-0.

  But, despite the win, the Raiders did not play up to par in the contest. On the other hand, the No. 3 seed Confederates were delighted just to be in the championship after picking up a hard-fought five-game win over No. 2 seed Hanover High School on Monday night to earn a slot in this week’s regionals.

  Before the season began, C-fed head coach Sally Smith said her team was capable of competing for a district title; but once play got under way and the losses mounted, she had her doubts.

  “At the middle of the season it was like, ‘Whoa, this is scary’,” she said. However, over the closing weeks of the season, Lee-Davis has played its best.

  “It’s exciting to say that we finished second in the district tournament and the guys are proud,” Smith said. “This is the first time going to regionals in a long while.”

  As for Atlee, the Raiders came into the season highly favored and played like the best team in the district throughout, which perhaps was a distraction in the championship match.

  Atlee jumped out to an early 15-5 lead over Lee-Davis in Game 1 of the district championship then stretched that margin to 21-9, which was possibly the worst thing head coach Nick Robinson could see.

  “We came out excited because it’s the district finals,” he said. “We played the first 15 to 20 points of Game 1 pretty aggressive and I think the score kind of reflected that to that point. Then we kind of got lazy and just started waiting for somebody else on our team to make a play and watching the game instead of playing it.”

  It appeared Atlee would quickly close out the first game when the Raiders’ score moved to 23-11 but suddenly Lee-Davis came to life with a helping hand from the Raiders’ lackadaisical effort.

  An Atlee service error was followed by a lift and a kill going out of bounds to get the Confederates back in the game.

  Lee-Davis then reeled off four straight and eight of the next nine points to pull within six before the Raiders closed out the win 25-18.

  Robinson said his team could have been overlooking the Confederates. “Not taking anything away from Lee-Davis at all, but we beat them twice this year and at some level the guys had that in the back of their mind, which is not what you want coming into district finals.”

  And with the door opened at the end of Game 1, Lee-Davis played more inspired over the remainder of the contest with the C-feds’ eyes on an upset.

  Atlee pulled out to a 6-2 lead in game two before Lee-Davis came back to knot the game at six, then eight, then 14.

  For every Raider run, the C-feds found a way to answer.

  An ace from senior Colton Powell forced the game’s fourth tie at 18 and brought a second timeout from the Atlee bench.

  “I called timeouts at points during the game when we really weren’t behind,” Robinson said. “It was just frustrating because we were making bad decisions and bad plays . . . I think we worried too much about looking cool and hitting the ball hard than getting points.”

The Raiders recognized what they were doing wrong, but it was a route hard to detour away from. “They knew they were playing a little lazy and it’s hard to correct once you start going down that road,” Robinson said. “It’s hard to switch and fix that just like a light switch in a game.”

  But Atlee managed.

  Coming out of the timeout the Raiders reclaimed the lead when C-fed senior Hank Parsley was called for going over the net.

  The Raiders’ Robert Chilcoat then came to serve and blistered Lee-Davis for three consecutive aces and a 22-18 lead, allowing Atlee to pull out the win 25-20.

  In Game 3, Atlee led 13-9 when Lee-Davis went on a run. A Raider block out-of-bounds was followed by a two-handed slap shot from C-fed Michael Abbott, and two blocks from Powell (one solo and one with an assist from senior Darius Anderson) to tie the game at 13.

  But Atlee got strong play down the stretch from senior Kody Tingler and Andrew Stanford to close out the match and championship 25-19.

  Tingler, Chilcoat and Stanford combined for 31 kills in the match for the Raiders. Tingler had 10 kills, two blocks and three digs; Chilcoat had 12 kills, a block, two digs and five aces; and Stanford had four digs, an ace and a block to go along with his nine kills.

  Junior setter Billy Dishman had a kill, a block, 3 digs, 3 aces and 37 assists for the Raiders.

  Robinson said a few days of solid practice should get Atlee back in the correct frame of mind heading into regionals.

  For the Lee-Davis Confederates, the goal is to continue their inspired play. “I think we’re looking good going into the regional tournament,” Smith said. “We still have a few things to work on, but I think it we can put it all together in the next few days we’ll be okay.”

Lee-Davis…..............................18 20 19
Atlee .........................................25 25 25
Highlights: Billy Dishman (A) kill, block, 3 digs, 3 aces, 37 assists
Records: Lee-Davis 15-11; Atlee 21-2