Heritage Volleyball Opens Season with Win over MP

By: Dan Sousa

Leesburg (Aug. 23, 2007) – If only the rest of the Heritage High School volleyball season was this easy.

The AA Pride opened their 2007 campaign with a barely-work-up-a-sweat straight set victory over smaller A Manassas Park Thursday evening, 25-5, 25-6, 25-9.

For Heritage, which lost five key seniors off of a 2006 team that made it all the way to the state playoffs, it will not be this easy the rest of the season.

“Overall I was very pleased with how they played,” said Pride coach Carmel Keilty who kicked off her 19th season as a volleyball head coach, including the sixth season since Heritage opened its doors in 2002.

Last year the Pride went 21-7 with four of those loses against Leesburg rival Loudoun County which tied Heritage in the regular season with an identical 13-1 district mark but then the Raiders won a special playoff, the Dulles District tournament and the Region II title all against the Pride. LC finished as the AA state runner-up while Heritage fell in the state quarterfinals.

Heritage graduated Rachel Young, Alana Rudkovsky, Lauren Bulka, Lena Bushrod and four-year starter at setter Katherine Buttery. On Thursday senior Rebecca Presor, a defensive specialist last year, made her varsity debut at setter.

“Rebecca Presor is doing a great job,” said Keilty.

Presor is one of four returning players on the nine-player varsity roster. Also back are seniors Gaby Galvan and Melissa McCandless and junior Ashley Scott. The four returnees started Thursday along with two freshman, Emma LeMaitre and Lian Bernett, both of whom were very impressive in their high school debuts.

Manassas Park, which suited up enough players to field three starting units, never could get warmed up in a very chilly Heritage gym.

Just about every third serve was a service winner or ace for the Pride with Presor, Bernett and LeMaitre posting Heritage to an 11-5 before McCandless reeled off 13 straight serves to ended the first game in Heritage’s favor, 25-5. Galvan and Scott were big at the net during McCandless’s run of service.

In the second game, it was Bernett, using a jump serve to keep MP off balance, scoring 13 straight points. Bernett notched six service winners during this streak and when the ball was put into play, fellow freshman LeMaitre was ready to put down any errant balls at the net.

To make matters worse for the visiting Cougars, trailing 17-6, they had a rotation snafu after some subbing and it cost them a point and the serve. After a five-minute delay, Scott took over the serve and popped seven straight to end the game, 25-6.

Scott was at it again in the third game, serving seven straight to put Heritage up 14-6. During this run, Presor, who was a setter while on junior varsity, started to mix it up and she dumped a couple of sets over the net and into the middle of MP’s block defense.

Presor started the night serving and she ended it as well as she served seven straight to finish the sweep, 25-9.

Unofficial Stats

Heritage Service Points

Bernett 17
McCandless 14
Scott 14
Presor 10
LeMaitre 4
Galvan 1
McLaughlin 1

Heritage Service Winners

Bernett 8
Scott 4
Presor 3
LeMaitre 3
McCandless 2

Heritage Aces

LeMaitre 1
McCandless 1

Heritage Kills

LeMaitre 6
Galvan 6
Scott 5
Bernett 4
McCandless 3
Presor 2
Brown 1