Photos Courtesy of Jay Campbell
& Dan Sousa (Jay took the ones on focus!)
By Dan Sousa
LoudounPrepSports.com Senior Content Editor
Sterling (Nov. 2, 2008) – The Loudoun County High School volleyball team met Leesburg rival Heritage for the third time in 10 days and for the second straight time the Raiders swept the Pride, claiming the AA Dulles District volleyball tournament title with a 25-22, 25-21, 25-14 win.
The Raiders (23-1) victory may have come at a price as senior Shaylin O’Connell, the district’s co-Player of the Year and a leader who has helped the Raiders to the 2006 state runner-up and 2007 state title, injuried her lower leg early in the third set and had to be helped off the court. The Raiders, who have a bye next Tuesday in the Region II quarterfinals, may or may not have O’Connell when they host a semifinal match next Thursday against either Millbrook or Fluvanna.
“The girls will just have to come together more,” said Raider coach Jenica Matthias who was already without starter, sophomore Rachel Arigo, one of the Raiders top servers, who broke a finger in practice this week prior to the semifinals and isn’t expected back for the regionals.
Even before O’Connell (7 kills, 2 blocks) went out of the match Saturday, the Raiders were getting some incredible play out of senior Katie Gloe (12 kills, 12 digs, 10 points) and junior Emily Vandegrift (7 kills, 3 blocks). Gloe was destorying outside sets with the velocity much like her teammate, senior Juliane Hanna (4 kills, 9 digs, 5 points, 1 block).
“Katie Gloe just keeps getting better game after game,” said Matthias.
Vandegrift, especially after O’Connell went out but also in the second set, was key in the middle, displaying a variety of shots that kept Heritage off-balance.
The Pride (20-4) never really got on track Saturday. In the first of the three meetings in the 10-day span, Heritage was nearly flawless as they stopped LC’s 47-match winning streak with a 5-set victory. Then two days later the Pride played excellent but fell to LC in a special one-match playoff between the district co-champions to determine the Region’s top seed. On Saturday, Heritage head coach Carmel Keilty could be seen looking at her team’s stat sheet during the match and shaking her head.
“We had a lot of unforced errors … 16 in the first game, eight in the second and 14 in the third game … I think we beat ourselves,” said Keilty, the district’s Coach of the Year. Her team will travel to Western Albemarle Tuesday to face the Jefferson District champions in the regional quarterfinals.
Indeed the tone for the evening was set early as the Pride came out aggressive in the first set with some nice attack winners but also a variety of shots sent long. LC’s service game was on all night and Gloe and Hanna keyed a 7-1 run that broke open a close match to take it from 9-8 Raiders to 15-9. The Pride had a late surge, led by senior Ashley Scott, junior Skye Young and freshman Christina Kamis but Heritage could never regain the lead, getting to within 20-21, before junior Robin Marsala set a winner into the Heritage “block hole” and then senior Rochelle Latka (3 kills, 1 assist, 1 block) and Vandegrift teamed for a big block. Kamis was able to get two points back with kills but Gloe and Hanna matched for the 25-22 win.
The second set was back-and-forth all the way to 20-20 when Gloe went for back-to-back kills on the outside that simply were put down before Heritage’s defense could organize. Pride sophomore Emma LeMaitre tooled the block to make it 22-21 LC but the Raiders took advantage of back-to-back Heritage attack errors and then Marsala (17 assists, 8 points, 2 digs) finished it off with an ace.
O’Connell was playing well, having put down a powerful shot off a Heritage player’s head, which mirrored an earlier **** in the match in which the powerful O’Connell sent a shot off a Pride players face, so hard, that the ball went back over the net and Heritage won the point. LC was up 4-2 when O’Connell had to exit. Keilty went over to check on O’Connell as she was being helped off and Heritage Athletic Director Ron Petrella gave O’Connell a friendly pat on the back as she sat on the bench in pain. It was just another example of the good sportsmanship displayed in this intense but friendly rivalry.
The air was let out of the match after the delay and LC won six of the next seven points with Gloe and Vandegrift in control as the Raiders went up 9-3 and never looked back. At one point the LC lead was 20-9 before finishing at 25-14.
Other LC stats from the match: Sammy Dormio (5 kills), Kerry Sarver (15 assists, 8 points, 5 digs), Kathleen Horvath (6 digs, 4 points) and Hannah Arnold (5 digs, 5 points).
(Heritage stats will be added after they are sent.)
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