AAA Liberty District Championship
By Jimmy Thomas
DigitalSports.com
The Langley women’s volleyball team defeated Stone Bridge Thursday night, 3-1, to capture the Liberty District Championship.
“Its been a long time coming” Saxons head coach Susan Shifflett. “Its been four years, its good to get it back from Stone Bridge. Iit feels really good!”
Langley took the first two games of the match 25-20 and 25-19. Stone Bridge answered, taking the third game 25-22.
But the Saxons closed the deal in the fourth game, winning 25-17 behind the strong play of all-District and tournament MVP Lisa Scott (committed to Maryland). Senior setter Megan Shifflett and Logan Sebastian were also named to the all tournament team.
The Bulldogs had Lily Vera and Meghan DeMartino named to the team as well.
The first round of the Northern Region Tournament will take place at 7 p.m. Monday, with the higher seed hosting. Langley will host Fairfax next week and Stone Bridge will face the third seed from the Concorde District. The remainder of the Northern Region tournament will be hosted by Centreville.
AAA Concorde District Championship
By Phil Murphy
DigitalSports.com
Maybe Centreville Coach Ken Moser doesn’t put out nationally syndicated instructional videos, but he and Tom Emanski, acclaimed AAU baseball coach, now have something in common after the Wildcats’ 25-13, 25-22, 26-24 win over Chantilly Thursday locked up back-to-back-to-back Concorde District Championships.
The Wildcats got out of the gates white hot, taking 13 of the final 15 points in the first game. Moser was quick to tab the reason behind that fast start as more defensive than offensive.
“We were being aggressive on serve-receive,” he said. “Chantilly is a great serving team and that’s what we had problems with the last time we played them. And we worked on addressing that serve-receive, and their ability to serve, and we really did a great job. I think our ability to pass kind of kept the rhythm in our favor and that’s what got us off to such a great start.”
The sailing was not quite as smooth in the second game as the margin was only two after a **** by Chantilly sophomore Samantha Reeves cut the Wildcat lead to 15-13. Centreville, then, regrouped coming out of a timeout, as has been characteristic of this team all season, and claimed seven of the next eight points.
“The middle [of a game] is always a big momentum builder, like running a quick set in the middle and slamming the ball down,” Wildcat senior libero Jackie Moot said. “When either side does that, that’s when the momentum is able to go to either side of the court.”
However, after having the flow of their game clearly in their favor, the Wildcats had five game-point opportunities before they were finally able to put the Chargers away, 25-22, and take a two games to none lead.
“We were kind of taking it easy and that’s when you need to bring back some intensity,” Moser said. “When you get ahead some times, you think you can just coast to the finish and against a team like Chantilly you can’t do that. You have to bring it every point and Chantilly showed us that.”
The clinching game was airtight for its entirety. Neither team had more than a two-point lead at any point and it took an extra point to decide. Centreville senior hitter — and tournament MVP — Kelly Brugger was paramount to the Wildcats success in the final set, recording blocks on three separate occasions when the Chargers threatened to spread their lead to a third point. Senior outside hitter Allie Darling was absolutely mistake free in the final frame as well, garnering props from her captain.
“We were playing from the bottom the entire time,” Brugger said. “We kept trying to get on top and [Chantilly] kept putting it back on our side. But once we got the consistency going, Allie Darling was playing very well on the outside, once she got that consistency with her hits, that’s how we won.”
Tied at 23 in the final set, Moser called a time out and stressed aggressiveness in the huddle, pointing out the team’s success in the first game when they played with their trademark tenacity.
Tied at 24, junior Kari Owens was pulled off the bench without time to get warm and brought into the game to serve.
“I don’t think she was warm,” Moser said after the game. “I think her report to me was ‘Don’t ever do that to me again.’ “
But Owens successfully served out the final two points, propelling the Wildcats to the three-game win and their third Concorde District Championship in as many seasons.
The other side of that coin: Despite having won the previous two district titles, Westfield went on to win the Northern Region Championship both seasons. Moot felt confident that this Centreville team has something the previous two did not.
“We have so much enthusiasm on the court all the time, which is huge,” she said. “\When we come together, even when someone misses a serve or shanks a ball, we’re back in the middle of the court regrouping. And that’s huge. We didn’t have that as much the last two years.”
If Centreville is to, themselves, prevent Westfield Coach Jim Bour and his team from pulling the “Tom Emanski” in Regionals it would not be until the championship game, slated for Saturday November 10 at Centreville, as the two teams will be on opposite sides of the bracket. The tournament, which has four representatives from each district, kicks off Monday.
Concorde All-Tournament Team
Theresa Harvey, Jr., Fairfax; Kelsey Maroney, Sr., Westfield; Allison Williams, Soph., Chantilly; Delaney Penney, Sr., Oakton; Vicki Chung, Sr., Chantilly, Suzie Marrett, Sr., Robinson, Kelly Brugger, Sr., Centreville — MVP
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