By: Dan Sousa
Leesburg (Oct. 3, 2006) – For the second straight year Heritage and Loudoun County are fighting it out for the top spot in the Group AA Dulles District and the inspired play of the two talented teams has caught the imagination of each student body. Last Thursday, in a full-throated turnout that would make a lot of basketball programs envious, the faithful for each school — standing the entire match in a sea of Pride red and wave of Raider blue — were rewarded with a thrilling five-game match.
After more than 90 intense minutes of action — by which time the face paint had started to run like mascara and the chants grew a bit hoarse — it was visiting Heritage remaining the team to be in the district with a 17-25, 25-21, 26-24, 23-25, 15-10 win over County.
“What a great match,” said Heritage coach Carmel Keilty. “County is great. It was a good match to have this time of the season. It could have gone either way.”
The win, Heritage’s 11th straight victory after a season-opening loss to Group AAA power Loudoun Valley, left the Pride 7-0 after the first half of the district season. Heritage lost to County in 2005 in the first meeting but the Pride didn’t drop another district contest and finished with a 13-1 mark and won both the regular-season and tournament titles. Somewhat lost in the shuffle of what Valley and Stone Bridge has accomplished the past two seasons is the fact that Keilty’s Pride are an impressive 46-10 since the start of the 2004 season.
The Raiders slipped to 5-1 and still have a match against Broad Run on Wednesday before finishing their first-half. Overall County is 9-2 with a loss , like Heritage, to Valley.
“I’m not big on rivalries but (my team) enjoys playing (Heritage). They are tough competition and it has been hard to overcome them in the past,” said County coach Jenica Matthias. “That’s the biggest crowd we’ve had this year.”
Keilty says the incredible crowd support started a couple of years ago between Valley and Heritage, owning to the fact that Keilty left Valley after a long successful run to start the Pride program. The rivalry between County and Heritage is a natural considering the two schools proximity to each other in Leesburg.
It is almost sister vs. sister and certainly it was brother vs. sister Thursday as County sophomore Joe Bushrod rooted for the Raiders and against his senior sister Lena, who attends and plays for Heritage after being on the Raider squad in 2005. Like any good sibling rivalry, Lena could be heard telling a teammate that she wasn’t going to talk to him because he “sat on the wrong side” and Joe could be heard telling his mother Nancy that he was the one that started the “traitor” chants aimed at Lena.
“The programs are both so close. The kids live in each other’s neighborhoods. It’s intense,” said Keilty who was frankly floored after the match by the support the Heritage students showed her team. “It is awesome. I am really proud to be affiliated with Heritage.”
A key for Heritage Thursday was the play of senior setter Katherine Buttery who had an area-best for this season, 48 assists in the match.
“(Buttery) keeps getting better and better every match,” said Keilty.
Senior Alana Rudkovsky had a big night as well with a season-best 17 kills and also 17 digs. Junior Rachel Young had 12 kills, 13 digs and three blocks for the Pride. Heritage’s younger players stepped up with sophomores Kelly McFarland and Ashley Scott combining for 12 kills. McFarland also had 11 service points and junior Gabriella Galvan added seven kills.
F0r the Raiders, when it was going well, it was going well at the net where the block was very effective, especially early in the match. Senior Amanda Arbogast had four solo blocks and eight block assists to go with her season-high 15 kills. She also had four aces and nine service points.
“We were blocking their hitters much more in the first couple of games,” said Matthias
Sophomore Shaylin O’Connell, returning from a broken finger suffered four weeks ago, had two solo blocks and two block assists to go with her six kills. Juniors Marguerite Hanna (12 kills, six digs, nine service points) and Morgan Petkovich (nine kills) combined for five block assists.
Junior Rebecca Dancy also had a good all-around game with 22 digs, eight kills, three aces and nine service points while senior Michelle Puckli registered 15 digs. County’s sophomore setters, Katie Martin (four digs, six service points0 and Kerry Sarver (three aces) combined for 42 assists.
After dropping the first game, Keilty’s team needed a fast start to the second game and she was up off the bench in fist-pumping approval as the Pride claimed an early 10-4 advantage. That didn’t stop the Raiders, particularly with seniors Arbogast and Paige Knudsen blocking at the net, from tying the game at 17.
Heritage went back up 20-17 and a long rally, punctuated by a great save by Puckli for the Raiders, cut into the lead by Martin was injured during the long rally and had to leave the game. She would return during the match but County might have lost a little momentum by losing her at the key juncture.
A couple of fine serves by Heritage junior Melissa McCandless put Heritage in position to tie the match at one game apiece.
The Pride led early in the pivotal third game but the Raiders, behind Arbogast and O’Connell, came back to tie it at 9-9 and then led by about three points all the way to 23-20. Rudkovsky then hit a ball into the back corner right near the Raider bench. With one linesman across from the bench signaling out and the other linesman, on the other end of the court, signaling good, the ball was ruled in to make it 23-21. Scott then tooled the Raider block to make it 23-22 but Rudkovsky sent her service long with a chance to tie the game to give Raiders a game point service attempt at 24-22.
Back-to-back unforced errors by the Raiders, however, tied the match and a booming kills by Young forced Matthias to call time out with Heritage ahead now 25-24. Another error out of the timeout gave Heritage the game and a 2-1 lead in the match.
The fourth game was a reverse of the third game as Heritage nursed a lead for most of the game only to have the Raiders come back late and tie things at 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23. The officiating calls seemed to even out as a Raider went unnoticed in the net on a long rally and the point gave County a 24-23 lead. Dancy tied the match by depositing a stray dig onto the Pride side.
Heritage only trailed 3-2 in the fifth game before taking command. Young threw up a solo block to tie the game and then reeled off three straight serves, the last a winner, to give Heritage a 6-3 advantage.
The Raiders called time out to slow the Pride momentum and it worked briefly as they knifed into the lead to cut it to 6-5 but McFarland made a heady decision to send a **** deep where the ball nipped the line. With McFarland back to serve, Buttery scored a point by plopping a free ball into an open corner, and Rudkovsky split the block with a nice **** to make it 9-5 Heritage.
O’Connell spun around the set to score a point for the Raiders and Dancy had a **** after a great dig by Hanna to make it 9-7 and force a Pride time out.
Rudkovsky came back after the time out and was able to quickly get off a **** that beat the block. Both teams then exchange service errors to make it 11-8 Pride. Bushrod then came through with a big point that had Keilty and all the Pride bench and fans emotionally charged.
Matthias tried to take some air out of the run with a time out but the Raiders put a a free ball attempt out to make it 13-8 Heritage. Arbogast, perhaps sending a message for the next meeting of these two teams, made a tremendous solo block on Young, who could only shrug off the defensive gem, but she got the point right back with a **** off a nice Buttery set. Heritage was whistled for a violation on match point to make it 14-10 but the Raiders had a ball spin off the net and fall back on the wrong side on the next rally and that gave Heritage the 15-10 game and match.
The Raiders swept both the junior varsity and freshman matches.
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