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Volleyball: Vikings net impressive win
The third time proved to be a charm for Loudoun Valley High School's volleyball team.
After losing in four games to Deep Run -- a Glen Allen school that has captured the last two Virginia AAA volleyball championships -- each of the previous two years, the Vikings were up to the tall task this time around Sept. 20 in Purcellville.
Valley stormed out to a two-game lead and rebounded nicely after dropping the third game to claim a 25-19, 25-7, 20-25 and 25-18 victory against Deep Run.
"Last year, we took one game from them," said Ally Blaine, who led the Vikings with 22 assists. "It's really great to come out and win in four. It's kind of a payback. They are an awesome team so it's an exciting win for us."
The Vikings, who won Virginia AA championships in 2001, 2002 and 2004 before being reclassified to Group AAA in 2005 due to the school's rising student population, qualified for the region playoffs at the AAA level for the first time in 2007 and are continuing to build towards becoming a state contender.
"We want to be able to challenge our girls with every opportunity we can," Valley coach Laird Johnson said. "Every non-district game we are trying to bring somebody that is going to be good competition for us. We have Langley coming in, we have Centreville still to play, we have Forest Park who was a state contender last year. Langley was in the state [playoffs] last year. We feel like this is what we need to do to be able to get our program to continue to step forward."
The Vikings (8-1) passed their latest challenge with flying colors Saturday afternoon. Valley's big cannon, Morgan Clark boomed 17 kills in the win. Nicole Bennett dished out 12 assists, while Kristen Martin scooped up 24 digs and Taylor Maddox added 14. Lindsay Phipps, the team's energizer, slammed eight kills and produced six blocking combos.
Valley raced out to a 16-7 lead in game one before the Wildcats closed the gap to 20-17. But the Vikings stood strong down the stretch to win the first game. The second game proved to be the least competitive of the match as Valley scored 11 consecutive points to begin the game and never looked back.
Facing the possibility of being swept, Deep Run showed fortitude in the third game. The Wildcats jumped out to a 6-0 lead and held at least a four-point advantage through the rest of the game. Serving errors and a few mishits at the net erased any chance the Vikings had of rallying.
Allowing a team of Deep Run's caliber to gain some momentum can prove very costly, but Valley was not going to be denied on this day. The Vikings were refocused and energized in the fourth, holding a lead throughout the game on their way to clinching the match.
"We knew this was the best team in the state. The [third game] was a fluke so we knew we had to come out stronger," Clark said. "We pulled it together and picked it up on defense a little. Our whole motto in that fourth game was don't let anything drop. We just got a little tougher, a little grittier and got the job done."
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