Girls Volleyball: Loudoun County, Stone Bridge Sweep to State Semifinals

(Nov. 14, 2012) - Both the Loudoun County and Stone Bridge high school girls volleyball teams swept to VHSL state quarterfinal victories Tuesday night. The Raiders beat New Kent, 25-12, 25-16, 25-17 to advance to the AA state semifinals for the 7th straight year where they will face E.C. Glass on Friday at 6:30 p.m. at VCU in Richmond. The Bulldogs beat Albemarle 25-16, 25-16, 25-14 to advance to the AAA state semifinals for the third straight year where they will face Atlee on Thursday at 5 p.m. at VCU in Richmond.

Loudoun County 2 Wins Away from 5th AA State Title in Six Years
Loudoun County jumped out fast and cruised to a 25-12, 25-16, 25-17 victory over New Kent High School in the VHSL AA State Quarterfinals. In front of a packed crowd and their last home match of 2012, the Raider punched their ticket to the semifinals at the VCU Seigel Center in Richmond, Va for the 7th consecutive season.

Loudoun County won their 16th consecutive match and improved to 26-1 on the season. The Lady

Raiders were led to victory by:
Maggie Phillips (9 kills, 11 digs, 20 service points, 5 aces, 2 block, 1 assist)
Taylor Huewe (11 kills, 1 dig, 1 block)
Jane Feddersen (7 kills, 3 blocks, 10 service points, 3 aces, 3 dig)
Megan Fox (31 assists, 3 service points, 5 digs, 3 kills, 3 aces)
Kelsey Slack (10 digs, 7 service points, 1 assist)
Emily Solis (5 digs, 3 service points, 2 assists)
Kelsey Anderson (5 service points, 6 digs)
Quinn O'Connell (3 kills)
Taylor Borup (3 kills)
Rachel Roberts (1 block, 1 kill)

The Lady Raiders return to action this Friday as they head to VCU for the AA State Semifinal vs. EC Glass at 6:30 p.m. EC Glass took down defending state champion Cave Spring (25-21, 23-25, 25-20, 25-20). Cave Spring is the only team to beat Loudoun County in state play in the last seven years.

Stone Bridge Back to AAA Final Four for Third Straight Year
Stone Bridge junior Libby Haslett had a big smile on her face after the Bulldogs swept Albemarle Tuesday in the AAA girls volleyball state quarterfinals, 25-16, 25-16, 25-14. Haslett could have been forgiven if she had a big smile during the match as well as Albemarle kept a close on Stone Bridge senior Ryan Ackermann on the outside and left Haslett virtually unblocked in the middle.


Haslett made Albemarle pay as she not only had several booming -- duck and cover! -- hits but she served as Stone Bridge's closer for the match, finishing out all three sets with flair.

"It's really exciting. This year we are trying to make a statement," said Haslett.

And about that solo block in the middle she faced most of the night: "It made it a lot easier to hit the ball down."

Stone Bridge coach Jill Raschiatore is most impressed with how her team bounced back from an end of the season adversity as the Bulldogs saw their perfect season end on the final day of the regular season in a loss to Langley and the following week Stone Bridge was shocked at home by Fairfax in the Liberty District semifinals.

"It says a lot about these girls by way they have fought back. They have showed resilience," said Raschiatore.

Stone Bridge had it all working Tuesday including a serve/receive game that had Albemarle scrambling on their end to find their setter and on Stone Bridge's side, libero Sarah Fairchild and the rest of defensive minded crew fed setter Cydney Gill at the net.

With  Haslett in the middle and Ackermann on the outside each getting 14 kills, Shannon Williams was a third option for SB that kept the visitors off balanced.

Albemarle managed just one-point leads early in set 1 and set 2 and never led in set 3 as SB took care of business.

Megan Bryn had a nice service night for the Bulldogs.

In set 1, with the score 13-12 SB, the Bulldogs scored five straight points to take control with Fairchild serving. Ackermann had two kills during the run sandwiched around a floater for a point by Williams.

In set 2, it was 9-8 Albemarle but SB scored eight of the next nine points with Bryn and Fairchild serving. Ackermann and Haslett combined for five kills during the run and you knew it would be the Bulldogs night when they had a dig miss Gill completly, fly over the net, and land untouched between the Albemarle defense.

In set 3, by the time Bryn tipped a ball into the middle of the floor and three diving Albemarle players gave it their best effort but the point made it 8-4 SB and the Bulldogs would take the double up advantage all the way to Richmond.

Stone Bridge's balanced attack:
Ryan Ackermann 14 kills, 11 digs, 1 ace
Mariah Brantley 6 digs, 2 aces
Megan Bryn 1 kill, 10 digs, 3 aces
Megan Ellis 2 kills
Sarah Fairchild 18 digs
Cydney Gill 33 assists, 12 digs, 1 ace
Libby Haslett 14 kills, 2 digs
Shannon Williams 9 kills, 2 digs, 1 block, 2 aces

The bulldogs are 27-2 overall and next play in the Virginia AAA State semifinal at VCU Thursday, 5 p.m. against Atlee. Awaiting the Bulldogs on the other side of the bracket are two familiar foes, two-time defending state champion Kellam, who beat Stone Bridge in the 2010 title game and last year in the state semifinals and Langley, the Bulldogs Liberty District and Northern Region rival.