Raiders End Season 28-0 With Controversial Call at Finish

By Paul Tenorio

Thursday, November 22, 2007

With a two-point lead over Grafton in the fifth game of the Virginia AA final Saturday night in Richmond, junior Shaylin O’Connell rose up and slammed her 21st kill of the night, prompting players on top-ranked Loudoun County to raise their hands in celebration thinking they had just captured the title.

But O’Connell’s spike sent the ball careening off the leg of the line judge, and it was difficult to see whether it had hit inbounds before bouncing or simply landed out of bounds and on the official’s foot.

The ball was called out, and senior Morgan Petkovich turned to argue the call with the officials — she said she clearly saw it was in. But before Petkovich had a chance, the call was overturned, and just like that, Loudoun County had secured its first AA volleyball state championship and completed a 28-0 season.

It was a controversial finish to an otherwise clear-cut year in which the Raiders had used a versatile attack featuring hitters such as Villanova-bound Petkovich and senior Marguerite Hanna, and strong defensive play from senior libero Rebecca Dancy to roll through the season unbeaten.

“I have no idea how to describe how I feel right now because I’ve never felt this way before,” Petkovich said after the title game. “It’s unreal.”

The Raiders absorbed several challenges en route to their perfect season, including tight matches against district rivals Broad Run and Heritage. But perhaps the biggest bump in the road was a rematch of last year’s state title game against Cave Spring. In 2006, Cave Spring defeated the Raiders to win the state title in three tight games. But this year Loudoun County came through with a five-game win, with the leadership of Petkovich and Hanna guiding the Raiders.

That experience was the difference for the team this year, according to Coach Jenica Matthias, who said the Raiders’ loss last year also proved vital in this year’s title game against Grafton.

“The difference this year was the girls just had more confidence,” Matthias said. “The pressure doesn’t hit them.”

Matthias will be without some of that experience next year but will have several important contributors back, including O’Connell, who stepped into a much bigger role in the postseason and proved she, too, can be valuable, like Petkovich. That, along with the encouraging play of underclassmen such as Juliane Hanna and Katie Martin, means Loudoun County won’t simply be fading away next year.

For the seniors who won’t be back in 2008, the triumph over Grafton provided the perfect ending to a career in which they won 46 of their final 47 matches.

“It was really, really, really big for the seniors for us to win,” Matthias said. “They had worked so hard, just pushing themselves to get here.”

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