Girls Volleyball: Freedom's Best Season Ever Ends in 5-Set State Quarterfinal Loss to Ocean Lakes

By Dan Sousa
VivaLoudoun Editor

South Riding (Nov. 16, 2011) – The thing about momentum in sports is that you can’t stop to admire it or even contemplate it. You can only continue to ride the wave and hope it takes you home to victory. On Tuesday the Freedom High School girls volleyball team was on such a roll in the AAA state quarterfinals that you figured it was only a matter of serves before parents and fans would be plugging Siegel Center directions into their GPS devices.

Freedom (22-6) had just won back-to-back sets going away – senior Kaitlyn LaMantia and Jasmine Jackson led a 25-14 blitz in the usually decisive third set – and the Eagles, with their Black Hole student section at full throat, were leading 13-8 in the fourth set.

A dozen points to the state semifinals but Ocean Lakes (27-5), led by hard-hitting junior Taylor Stratton – who hit the ball hard enough that she might have left a divot or two in the Freedom gym floor – fought back and tied the match with a 25-21 set four win.

That momentum that had Freedom dreaming of the Final Four was now riding the other way and Ocean Lakes, taking advantage of Eagle errors, scored the first four points of the fifth set and never looked back as they ended Freedom’s best season ever with a 15-11 win.


“I’m so sad … I think I might go home and cry a little,” said a misty-eyed LaMantia after the 25-18, 17-25, 14-25, 25-21, 15-11 loss ended her brilliant 4-year career that saw the program go from the bottom of the district table to back-to-back state tournament appearances.

“It is so great how far we came and how much we improved. We were pushing for the win tonight. We played out hearts out,” said LaMantia.

LaMantia, who will play at North Carolina State next year, had 11 kills and 24 assists with two aces as she split time between setter and outside hitter. Jackson, with serves and attacks that might blow a fuse on the radar gun, finished with 17 kills, three aces and three blocks.

“We definitely put the hard work in and had the heart to get this far,”said Jackson, who also felt like that momentum from the third set, when she served seven straight points to ice the win and put Freedom up 2-1, was enough to advance the Eagles. “I thought that was it, ‘we are going to the semifinals’.”

Freedom coach Jim Clark was left with a couple of key thoughts,especially concerning his two college-bound seniors – Jackson is going to play at Frances Marion – and how errors down the stretch prevented the season from extending.

“It is not going to be easy to replace those girls,” said Clark.

And on what happened to the momentum: “Errorsjust killed us. We gave it away.”

In the fifth set, Freedom errors led to three of the Dolphins’ first four points and accounted for more than half of Ocean Lakes points – 8 of 15 – in the clincher.

“I think we saw ourselves in the lead and saw ourselves finishing the match and then we started playing cautiously,” said Clark.

At the start of the night it appeared that Ocean Lakes might just blow into the gym and blow out Freedom as the Dolphins took 8 of the first 10 points and cruised to an opening 25-18 win.

Stratton hit some shots with enough force you couldn’t blame the defense to yell “duck and cover” rather than “cover” and Ocean Lakes senior Jacque Grigsby on the outside provided a nice change of pace to Stratton, with an attack that fooled the Freedom block early.

As the match went on, however, Freedom’s defense – led by the Phung sisters, junior Andrea with 31 digs and two aces and senior Courtney with 16digs – started to figure out the Ocean Lakes offense and their passes allowed LaMantia to run the Eagle offense.

In set two, Freedom junior Kayleigh Kennedy (10 kills, 2 aces) had some nice kills and was especially big down the stretch as she had three of Freedom’sfinal four points as the Eagles closed out the set, 25-17, to tie it at 1-1.

“This is what a state match should be,” said Clark.

In set three, it was Jackson’s solo block on Stratton that sparked the Freedom bench and fans and started a run that put the Eagles up 15-10. The Dolphins closed to within two, when junior Noah Bell (7 kills) had a smartly-placed dink to end a long rally. With Jackson back jump-serving, the Eagles reeled off eight straight points to make it 24-13. During that stretch,Jackson had two service winners and two backrow kills.

Senior Maryam Kaymanesh had a nice set for LaMantia to close out the win and make it 2-1 Freedom.

The start of the end for Freedom actually came before the Eagles went up13-8 as that lead should have been bigger with several service errors and very lucky bounce keeping Ocean Lakes within five.

Junior Elizabeth Jennison’s crosscourt kill put Freedom up 17-15 but a service error triggered a six-point run for Ocean Lakes with Stratton, being recruited by Villanova among others, putting the hammer down one moment andthen showing a deft touch with a tip the next.

It was 23-21 Ocean Lakes when Grigsby found the back corner with a kill and then she tipped a ball over the block to finish the set and send it to five.

After falling behind quickly in the fifth, Freedom fought hard, closing to 9-8 on a service winner by Courtney Phung, but Stratton scored again to keep Ocean Lakes in control.

With the Dolphins up 12-8, Freedom made one last bid to keep their season going, as Kennedy put one away and Stratton couldn’t get past the Freedom block. At 12-10, Freedom had yet another service error and Ocean Lakes finished off the Eagles, 15-11, for the win and a date with Atlee in the semifinals Thursday night at 5 p.m. at VCU.

"We have accomplished so much this season," said Clark. "We have 18 volleyball records up on the wall and 14 are going to be replaced. This has still been a banner year for us -- in fact we won three banners.

Oh so close to the Final Four but the Eagles finish 2011 with a school-record 22 wins, a first ever district title, district tournament title, regional title and a lifetime of friendship and memories.

"It probably won't set in that our season is over until tomorrow ... when I'm not going to practice in the afternoon," said Jackson