Raiders Reach State Semifinals

Loudoun County Volleyball Heads to Richmond

By Paul Tenorio

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Second-ranked Loudoun County was shaky at the start of Tuesday night’s Virginia AA state quarterfinal against Jamestown (25-2), struggling to stop the Eagles’ powerful hitters and getting whistled for rotation violations as the Raiders fell into an early deficit at home.

But the Raiders regrouped and used a balanced attack and a constantly-adjusting defense to edge Jamestown in four games, 17-25, 25-15, 25-23, 26-24, and advance to the state semifinals for the third consecutive season.

Loudoun County moves on to face No. 4 Chancellor in the AA semifinals on Friday at 1 p.m. at the Siegel Center.

"I think that if you're going to win right now it's better for us to play a good team and play tight [matches]," Loudoun County Coach Jenica Matthias said. "Because we have to get used to that. We've got to get used to playing big when the score is close and not making unforced errors and mistakes."

Jamestown junior Krista Hughes finished with 28 kills and often halted many of the moment-grabbing runs to which Loudoun County is accustomed.

Hughes was perhaps the best player Loudoun County (26-1) had faced since Grafton’s Alison Blasingame in last year's state championship, and her talent, along with that of senior Cory Harris (13 kills), forced a constant chess match between the Raiders defenders and Jamestown's star hitters.

"First we changed our whole defense around when she was in the back row," senior Kerry Sarver said. "Then she started hitting where we weren't and so we had to go back to what we used to do and we were always adjusting and that’s always working for us."

Loudoun County was quickly overwhelmed by unforced errors and strong hitting by Jamestown in the first game, trailing by as much as 15-4 and 20-7 before eventually falling 25-15.

But in the second game the Raiders well-rounded offense started clicking.

Shaylin O'Connell, Katie Gloe and Emily Vandegrift had early kills to open up a 13-7 lead, and strong serving from Hannah Arnold extended the lead to help County pull away and knot the match.

"A lot of times when we played game one the opponent has been shaky because we've played our game," Matthias said. "Now we're starting to face opponents that aren't shaky and play their game right off the bat which is also what we have to do."

County fell behind 19-14 in the third game as Jamestown looked to seize the lead in the match, but a bad serve opened the door for the Raiders and Arnold's serves again were effective as Loudoun County rattled off five consecutive points behind the junior to take a 20-19 lead. The two teams battled back and forth and were tied at 23-23, but a block from Juliane Hanna and a kill from senior Rochelle Latka gave Loudoun County the game and the 2-1 advantage in the match.

The trade off continued early in the fourth game and the two teams were tied 6-6 when Arnold once again stepped back to serve.

The junior had two service points to help open up a 12-6 lead, and the Raiders extended the advantage to 19-10 behind the serves of sophomore Kathleen Horvath and kills from O’Connell, Latka and Gloe.

Jamestown continued to fight and scored 14 of the next 19 points to tie the score at 24-24. But with the pressure on, Latka again came up with a big kill, sending a ball off the line to give Loudoun County the lead. And on the next point, O'Connell’s block fell out of bounds but was ruled to be tipped by Jamestown and Loudoun County moved on to continue its title defense.

"I went down [to Richmond] last year on the bus for the semifinals and I loved it," Horvath said. "Everything about it was so exciting and I could only imagine playing there the next year. I didn't really know it would happen."

Notes: O’Connell led the Raiders with 10 kills, 4 blocks and 2 digs. Other leaders were Vandegrift (9 kills), Latka (9 kills), Gloe (6 kills, 6 digs), Sarver (16 assists, 12 points, 8 digs) and Robin Marsala (15 assists, 7 digs, 7 points, 2 kills). Horvath finished with 14 digs, 10 points and 2 assists while Arnold had 10 digs and 8 points. ... After a strong night, Latka tweaked her left knee late in the match and was on crutches with the knee iced afterwards. ... Loudoun Valley fell to Landstown, 25-17, 25-18, 25-21, in its Virginia AAA state quarterfinal match Tuesday night. Landstown moves on to play Westfield in the semifinals on Thursday night in Richmond.

Extra Points

By Paul Tenorio and Matt Brooks