By Angela Watts
Assistant General Manager, Washington D.C.
** Click on the links on the top left to access a photo gallery and nearly 100 video highlights from Tuesday’s semifinal matches, as well as video interviews with Chantilly senior Jessica Cooper and Westfield senior Sammy Spees.
The Concorde District tounament’s top two seeds — Chantilly and Westfield — both successfully advanced past Tuesday night’s semifinal round and will meet for the third time this season to decide the league’s tournament championship on Thursday .
But while they arrived at the same place, the unbeaten Chargers (16-0 overall) and host Bulldogs (17-6) got there with two very different ways.
Top-seed Chantilly bent but never broke in a 25-13, 25-22, 27-25 sweep of fourth-seed Herndon in the first match of the semifinal doubleheader, rallying from as much as a 16-11 deficit in Game 2 to keep their perfect season in tact.
The Chargers then had to hold off a fast-charging Hornets’ team that rallied from a 15-5 deficit in Game 3 to knot the score at 17 and force the game into extra points.
Still, Chantilly got the deciding points when it needed them most, finishing it off with an ace by junior libero Laura Misiewicz on match point.
With the win, not only do the Chargers remain blemishless on the season headed into the championship game on Thursday, but they have only dropped two games all season — one each to Stone Bridge and Centreville.
“I don’t know that it’s added pressure, just that they need to always be ready to come out and play,” said Charger Coach Charles Ezigbo, was the names the league’s Coach of the Year during a ceremony between the two semifinal matches. (See below for full list of honorees.) “But the teams seems to respond better under pressure. I’ve seen that all year. Whenever they get down they do fight to come back. I like that obviously
“But it does stress me out a whole lot. So we try not to let them get into that situation.”
The Chargers were led by junior outside hitter Samantha Reeves and junior middle hitter Allison Williams with 10 kills a piece, while junior outside hitter Jamie Gorman added eight. The Hornets, meanwhile, were paced by junior middle blockers Steph Drahozal (10 kills) and Hannah Vick (7), while junior outside hitter Kelly Madden totaled five and senior outside hitters Maggie Russell and Jessica Strother added four each.
“We came down from a 10-point deficit and that’s pretty good,” Herndon Coach Pat Smith said. “We didn’t give up. But they looked a little nervous to me. I think there is a mystique about Chantilly. They’re undefeated, and we had our worst and our first loss of the season to them … so I think they did have an edge. But I think that the game plan was to come out and play them better than we did last time, and I think we did that.
“To be in a game that goes extra points — that could have gone either way.”
Things were back-and-forth throughout the night’s second match, as third-seed Centreville (13-7) and second-seed Westfield (17-5) saw the momentum swing wildly in what proved a 23-25, 25-15, 25-19, 13-25, 15-11 victory for the host Bulldogs.
“It didn’t matter who was on the court, each team struggled at times and each team played out of their minds at times,” Wildcats’ Coach Ken Moser said. “It was just one of those things tonight. It was a weird match. I don’t think I’ve ever seen momentum swing that much from game-to-game. But it was a good match, it really was. I can’t complain. Both teams showed a lot of heart. It was an outstanding match … just unfortunate that Game 5 didn’t go our way.”
Game 5, in fact, went the way of Concorde District Player of the Year Sammy Spees. Spees, who led all players with a match-high 20 kills and 20 digs, scored on three consecutive plays during that deciding fifth game to break open a 13-9 lead for Westfield. The Bulldogs finished things off with a big middle hit from junior Amy Milstead and a **** right down the line by junior outside hitter Emma Stewart.
“I’ve said all along that Sammy is a special person, a four-year varsity starter, a captain and a leader,” Westfield Coach Jim Bour said. “And this time she’s just stepped up. She wants to do everything she can to get this team a district championship, and that’s what it’s all about.
“We did a lot of different things in the first four games tonight, but the fifth one we went back to how we started and said, ‘This is it.’ I put Sammy back in the front — I had moved her because we were having a little difficulty, they were sitting on her a little bit — but I told her, ‘You’re back up front. We’re going to go with what got us here and let the cards fall.’ Because when you have a person like Sammy that has so much experience, it rubs off on people. And that’s what served us there at the end.”
Westfield also got considerable help from senior middle hitter Kelly Murray (16 kills, 4 blocks) and sophomore middle hitter Emily Kohler (16 kills), as well as senior defensive specialist Angie Giancola (27 digs) and senior setter Kathleen Lanigan (55 assists).
Centreville, meanwhile, was paced by junior outside hitter Celine Alasomuka (11 kills, 22 digs), senior outside hitter Allie Darling (8 kills, 17 digs) as well as senior setter Lindsey Hunter (14 assists) and junior setter Jenny Smith (8 assists).
All four teams that participated in Tuesday’s semifinal will advance to the Northern Region tournament, which begins Tuesday. First, though, the Chargers and Bulldogs will meet at 7 p.m. on Thursday at Westfield to decide the league crown.
“We missed the final two last year, and we’ve worked really hard to get back there and give it another shot against Chantilly,” Bour said. “It’ll be our third time — and yeah, we’ve gotten beat both times 3-0 — but we’ve also gotten better each time. So we’ll talk about the things we need to do.
“We’ll go out to team dinner like we always do, and hopefully be ready and it’ll turn out a little better that it did last time.”
Email: awatts@digitalsports.com
All-Concorde District Team
Player of the Year: OH Sammy Spees, Sr., Westfield
Coach of the Year: Charles Ezigbo, Chantilly
First Team: OH Allie Darling, Sr., Centreville; OH Theresa Harvey, Sr., Fairfax; DS Laura Misiewicz, Jr., Chantilly; OH Susie Murach, Soph., Robinson; OH Samantha Reeves, Jr., Chantilly; MH Allison Williams, Jr., Chantilly.
*Honorees were selected by the Concorde District coaches.
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