The Mathews High School volleyball team will be playing for the state championship this weekend. The Lady Devils earned the ticket to the big game after capturing the Region 1A East title and beating Radford, 3-0, Tuesday night in the state semifinals.

Mathews will head to the Siegel Center at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond on Saturday for an 11 a.m. showdown with the Region 1A West champion Auburn Eagles.

Auburn, two-time defending state champions, had last played Mathews in the semifinals of the 2011 state tournament. That game went down to the wire, with the Lady Devils winning the fifth and deciding set by a 16-14 score.

Mathews captured the state crown in 2011, as well as the following year. Auburn also won the state championship in 2012, playing in another division, and took the 1A state title in 2013, beating Altavista 3-0.

Nortumberland

To earn a spot in the regional championship game, Mathews took on Northumberland last Wednesday, beating the Northern Neck f...