BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Union County High School’s volleyball team earned the third seed in Region 3 of the Rural class and will travel to play second seed Lafayette (15-6) in a semifinal match on Saturday, Oct. 25, at 2 p.m.
Union (20-8) lost a pair of 3-1 matches to Lafayette in the regular season, but defeated the Hornets 3-0 in the Oct. 14 semifinals of the District 6 tournament.
The top four seeds in each region — based on the final Florida High School Athletic Association/MaxPreps rankings — qualified for the playoffs. Branford (20-4) earned the top seed in Region 3 and will host fourth seed Aucilla Christian (14-9) in an Oct. 25 semifinal match.
If Union defeats Lafayette, it will play for the Region 3 championship on Tuesday, Oct. 28, at 7 p.m. The Tigers would either travel to play Branford or host Aucilla Christian.
The Tigers are coming off a 3-1 (25-13, 21-25, 25-17, 25-18) loss to Branford in the Oct. 16 District 6 championship match.
Branford, which was the state runner-up last season, is the number-one team in all of the Rural class.
The Region 3 qualifiers are the same as they were last season and also seeded the same. Union defeated Lafayette 3-1 in the 2024 tournament before losing 3-2 to Branford in the region final.
