Volleyball: Loudoun County Alone at the Top in Dulles District Standings After Storming Back Against the Spartans

Raider Juniors Katrina Kirby and Jenna Strange on the Big County Win

By Dan Sousa
VivaLoudoun Editor

(Sept. 22, 2010) – The Loudoun County High School volleyball team dropped the first game Tuesday night to Broad Run in a Dulles District showdown, but the Raiders, buoyed by the vocal backing of their student fans and the crisp cadence of the school’s drumline, stormed back to dominant the next three games.

The 22-25, 25-8, 25-12, 25-15 convincing victory leaves Loudoun County (6-0 in district, 8-1 overall) alone in first place as Broad Run slips to 4-1 and 4-2.

“Broad Run are big rivals. We love playing them, they are a great team,” said Loudoun County junior Jenna Strange, who had a good all-around evening with eight kills, 19 digs, 14 points, and three aces.

Last year the two teams split four intense matches with Loudoun County winning a one-game playoff to take the district’s top seed and Broad Run beating the Raiders on their home court in the district tournament finals. That pedigree accounted for the late-season atmosphere Tuesday.

“We tried to get a lot of friends to come out and help support us and the drumline was helpful in getting us pumped up,” said Strange.

The Raider drumline plays and the Raider Riot tries to keep the beat!



Loudoun County coach Jenica Matthias, who semi-joked that her team had been preparing for weeks for the match, had her girls ready for the hyper-charged setting.

Raider volleyball coach Jenica Matthias on the big win


“We have been practicing for a loud atmosphere for the girls to have to communicate with …whether it’s loud music, loud fans, the drumline … just the excitement of the match,” said Mathias who has led the Raiders to three consecutive AA state titles. “I think that helped tonight because they weren’t afraid and they didn’t back down.”


Broad Run, led by junior Mallory Brickerd, broke open a 19-19 tie in the first game and scored four straight points to take a 23-19 lead. With Strange’s help, Loudoun County cut the deficit to 23-21 but Brickerd picked up another kill to bring game point.

Raider sophomore Rachel Roberts (7 kills, 5 blocks, 3 digs) put a ball away to make it 24-22 but a service violation gave the Spartans the 1-0 lead. The rest of the night would be all Loudoun County as the Raiders sprinted out to huge leads in each of the next three games.

Matthias said the turnaround started with better blocking for her team and that had a positive domino affect: “We came out in game two and (the girls) were really focused on blocking and closing their block and that helped our defense and then we were able to pass better and that opened up our middle hitting.”

Broad Run could do nothing to stop the Raiders from rattling off long stretches of points.

“We always get our momentum going and it helps us score a lot of points in a row,” said junior Katrina Kirby who had seven kills and four blocks.

Loudoun County’s serve/receive game had Broad Run on its heels and the start of games 2-4 were almost identical with Raiders leaving no double as they went up 10-1 in the fourth game. The Spartans showed flashes of great play but struggled with consistency and will need to find on-the-court chemistry to challenge the Raiders.

For the rest of the district, region and state … there are a couple of scary aspects to the 2010 Raiders. First, they appear to be getting better as the season moves along and second, they may be a year away from peaking as there were key moments Tuesday where the County line-up had just one senior on the floor.

Among the Raider underclassmen making big contributions Tuesday besides Strange, Roberts and Kirby were junior Danielle Cullen (10 kills, 8 digs, 9 points, 4 aces, 2 blocks), sophomore Taylor Huewe (8 kills, 7 blocks), and freshman Maggie Phillips (4 kills, 2 blocks, 2 digs).

Raider Seniors at crucial spots include setter Colleen Bowlds (26 assists, 15 points) and defensive specialists senior Kathleen Horvath (15 digs, 3 points). They received support from junior Jordan Leiter (10 assists, 5 points, 2 digs), junior Gabby Serafin (9 digs, 9 points, 3 aces), junior Georgi Fox (2 points, 2 digs), senior Sammy Dormio (3 digs), and sophomore Megan Fox (2 assists).

The Loudoun County JV (8-0) and Freshmen (6-0) teams remained undefeated on the year as they swept their ways to victory with scores of 25-17, 25-18 and 25-10, 25-6 respectively.

The Raiders host Dominion on Thursday while the Spartans must regroup quickly as they play at Freedom in a battle for second place in the district.