NOVA's ice hockey team plays against Maryland in a Nov. 20 game in Prince William County. Photo: KJ Mushung

By: Arch Scurlock
Sports Columnist

After having suffered some lopsided defeats early in the season, NOVA ice hockey coach, Barrett Haga, finally found some time to smile after the second period of the Nov. 20 Sunday morning game against the University of Maryland at the Prince William Ice Center. Northern Virginia Community College was trailing only 2-0, despite having been outshot by 36-10.

“Our hard work has finally paid off. Our goalie is playing out of his head,” remarked Haga.

The third period saw NOVA take only 14 seconds to score its first goal by James Powers from about five feet out. UMD came back, however, to score the next three goals before James Powers scored at 11:49 from about 10 feet out on a one-on-one shot on the goalie, making it 5-2. Powers twice had one-on-one breakaway opportunities against the goalie during the game but was not able to capitalize on either.

NOVA next took advantage of a power play at 6:59 as Richard Orksider scored on a slap shot from about 25 feet out to cut the deficit to 5-3. NOVA could get no closer as UMD finally prevailed 6-3.

After the game, the coach exulted, “We’ve come a long way. The team is starting to come together, to gel as a team. Towards the end of the year we should make decent showings. We’re missing some key players today, but the guys played the best game they could have played as a team.”

The previous weekend, NOVA had traveled to southwest Virginia to play two games. On the Nov. 12 in Roanoke, NOVA fell hard to Radford, 12-1. However, the following afternoon, NOVA recovered from its late night beating to lead Virginia Military Institute after every period and hung on for a 7-6 win, NOVA’s second of the year.

Kevin Hastings had two goals and two assists and Casey Dunn added two goals.

The weekend following the Maryland game, NOVA traveled up north but did not receive much hospitality, losing 8-1 on Dec. 3 to Rowan University in New Jersey and then the following day 7-1 to Bryn Athyn College near Philadelphia, a team they had played much better against earlier in the season at home.

NOVA’s record stands at 2-11.

Arch Scurlock

Sports Reporter

The defending Virginia Community College champion men’s basketball team began its season in early November. Duplicating last season’s success, however, is not a given as most of last year’s team is gone. The only holdover players are forward Jonathan Ball and the injured Andre Allen. Jamal Fair returns from the 2009-10 team.

The team includes 11 freshmen and three new sophomores, all from the Washington, D.C. area. The team continues to be coached by sixth-year coach Mike Fitzmaurice with assistant coaches Sean Fitzmaurice, Michael Abdlejabbar and Joe Shoemaker.

Results to date have been close to last year’s team, which started 4-5. Through seven games this year, NOVA is 3-4.

NOVA’s first game was a big loss at 103-88 to a strong Hagerstown Community College team on Nov. 2. Next, in a tournament Nov. 4 and 5 at Catonsville, Md., NOVA notched its first win, over Chesapeake (Md.) College 100-86 before falling to the Community College of Baltimore County-Catonsville 77-70.

NOVA’s first home game at Annandale ended in a close 81-80 win over the College of Southern Maryland on Nov. 16. NOVA went out to a 41-36 halftime lead, led by Ball with nine points and Dominique Phillips with eight.

In the second half, NOVA streaked out to a 16-point lead 63-47 with about 14 minutes to go, but the game was not over. CSM came back to within six at the 10-minute mark and closed to within two at the five-minute mark.

NOVA continued to keep a small lead and led by two with a little over a minute to go, 79-77. NOVA’s Jamal Fair took a bad shot, and CSM made a basket with 23.9 seconds to go to gain a tie, 79-79.

After a timeout, NOVA worked the ball around, and Steve Pierre received a nifty pass and made a layup to put NOVA up 81-79 with 5.7 seconds left.

A timeout was taken and CSM inbounded the ball. Bringing the ball up the court, the CSM player was unable to get the ball to the free CSM player under the basket as he fumbled the ball under pressure. However, NOVA fouled with 0.7 seconds to go on an attempted shot. CSM’s Daniel Henry, who had already scored 20 points, had two foul shots to try to send the game into overtime. Looking a bit uneasy, Henry made his first foul shot but his second bounced off the front of the rim, and NOVA rebounded as time ran out, allowing them to escape with the close win. Pierre led NOVA with 17 points, and Ball added 16.

Coach Fitzmaurice exclaimed afterwards, “We’ve got a good ball team. We’ve got good ballplayers. They made a lot of mistakes, but we’re early in the season. As the season progresses, we think these mistakes will be minimized and we can play the kind of ball we did last year.”

“We did the same thing last year,” he said of not starting out well.

On the game tonight, he remarked, “We’ve got to practice a lot harder our fundamentals. We committed too many fouls. We turned the ball over too many times, and that let CSM stay in the game.”

Next, NOVA traveled to Baltimore on Nov. 26 and easily beat CCBC-Dundalk 100-74 in a typical run-and-gun NOVA win.

The weekend of Dec. 3 and 4 shaped up as quite a challenge for NOVA. The team traveled to North Carolina for the Davidson County Community College Storm Classic prepared to face two teams with a combined 15-2 record.

The first game saw NOVA fall to Davidson 87–73. The next day, in a slower game, NOVA fell to Spartanburg (S.C.) Methodist College 60-56. NOVA’s record thus sat at 3-4.

The remainder of December will see NOVA still on the road, playing four games, including two in New York. They return home Jan. 7 and 14 for two games before going on the road for four more away games.

The sophomores on the NOVA women's volleyball team were honored at the final home game on Oct. 27 in a match against Hagerstown Community College. Stephanie Quirk (psychology major), Monique Smith (biology), Elisavet Loukaidou (biology) and Samantha Bolte (business) accept flowers and gifts. Photo by Arch Scurlock.

Arch Scurlock
Sports Columnist

The Northern Virginia Community College women’s volleyball team, with the help of early-season successes, ended its 2011 season with a winning record at 13-12.

The team entered a busy October month of competition with a 7-2 record. After splitting its two matches in the three-team competition at the Annandale campus on Oct. 1, it traveled on Oct. 4 to Keyser, W.Va., to play the tough Potomac State College squad, where it dropped a three game to one match.

At a game Oct. 6 the team lost to another tough team, the Community College of Baltimore County-Catonsville, 3-0. A two-day competition over Oct. 8 and 9 in Hagerstown saw NOVA split four matches, including a second loss to Montgomery Community College-Rockville and a third time to Community College of Baltimore County-Catonsville, though closing the gap against Catonsville, losing only 25-27, 25-23, 20-25 and 25-27.

After one day off, NOVA hosted Trinity Washington University on Oct. 11 and beat them 3-0 for the second time this year to up their season record to 11-7. On Oct. 13 NOVA traveled to Columbia, Md., to play Howard Community College. Although NOVA had beaten them 3-0 less than a week earlier, this time Howard reversed the final result, winning 3-1.

On Oct. 18, NOVA played the tough Potomac State College Catamounts again, this time at the Annandale campus. The first game saw NOVA commit a number of errors as Potomac won easily 25-15. Game Two saw NOVA again not playing well as it got dumped 25-16.

Game Three, however, saw NOVA streak out to a 7-1 lead. Could they hold it to the end? Potomac slowly whittled away at the lead and edged it down to 11-7. Some good serving by NOVA’s Alanah Jones widened NOVA’s lead to 14-7.

NOVA still led 17-14 before Potomac scored three straight to tie for the first time 17-17. Potomac then scored three more on two NOVA errors and a spike before NOVA scored two to come back to within 19-20. A NOVA error stopped that streak as Potomac then widened the score to 24-20, finally winning 25-21. With the win Potomac increased its record to 19-2 while NOVA fell to 11-9.

Two days later on Oct. 20, NOVA hosted Frederick Community College of Maryland and beat them 25-10 and 25-17 in a shortened contest.

NOVA went back on the road for its next three matches. The first two were at Rockville on Oct. 22 as NOVA lost for the third time to Montgomery Community College-Rockville, but at least won a game 25-20. It then played a good Harford Community College (Md.) squad. The match stretched to five games as the first four games went 29-31, 25-16, 25-17 and 22-25.

NOVA then easily won 15-4 to increase its season record to 13-10 with two matches left, insuring a winning season record.

Next, on Oct. 25, it was off to Cumberland to play Allegany College of Maryland. NOVA had beaten them earlier 3-1, but this time Allegany shut out NOVA in three games.

Match 25 was against the strong Hagerstown Hawks at Annandale on Oct. 27. NOVA hoped to, if not win the match, then at least to win a game or two. Hagerstown came into the match having won its last 15 games in a row. Before the game, the four NOVA sophomores were honored for their play: Samantha Bolte, Monique Smith, Stephanie Quirk and Elisavet Loukaidou.

The first game saw NOVA streak out to an 8-0 lead, but the Hawks came back to 9-5. NOVA played near errorless volleyball as it held leads of 12-5, 13-8, 18-14 and 22-17. Hagerstown finally tied it at 24-all.

NOVA’s Monique Smith had two strong spikes, the second giving NOVA the lead at 26-25. NOVA was unable to capitalize on that lead, but at 27-26 a NOVA return twirled around on top of the net before falling back onto the NOVA side, depriving the team of the win. NOVA again held leads at 28-27 and 30-29 but finally fell to Hagerstown 32-20.
In the second game, NOVA errors helped doom it to a 25-13 defeat.

NOVA rallied for the third game, taking an early 6-1 lead. Hagerstown narrowed the lead, but NOVA held small leads all the way until the Hawks tied it at 15-15. Hagerstown then took leads of 19-15, 21-17 and 24-20. A NOVA point cut the lead to 24-21 and raised hopes for a comeback as NOVA regained the serve. However, the serve failed to get over the net, and hopes were quickly dashed as Hagerstown took the third game 25-21 and the match. Still, NOVA had given Hagerstown all they could handle for two of the three games.

With the win, Hagerstown’s record climbed to 22-7 while NOVA finished at 13-12.

“We had a great year with a small team. They hung in there well and did very, very good with each other,” related Coach Marcus Robinson after the match. “We played very well today. This was our last game, our last home game and sophomore night, so we were up for it.”

NOVA play Potomac State College on October 18. Photo by Kama Storie.

NOVA's Kasee Hilliard shoots a jump shot over a defending Howard CC player in NOVA's December 7 59-28 win at Annandale. Photo by Kama Storie.

Arch Scurlock

Sports Columnist

The Northern Virginia Community College women’s basketball team led almost the entire game on Dec. 7 at Annandale, easily defeating the Howard Community College Dragons of Columbia, Md., and more than doubling their score.

After Howard tied the score 5-5 early in the first half, it was all NOVA. They led 32-14 at the half, and the six-player squad kept up its strong play in the second half, winning 59-28.

NOVA’s tenacious defense forced many Howard turnovers, and Howard’s poor shooting sealed their loss. NOVA had three players in double figures, led by Carlie Zirkle (Marshall High School) with 18, along with Kasee Hilliard (Garfield HS) and Paris Cantrell (Freedom HS), both with 10. NOVA’s Halley Cummins (Oakton HS) made three 3-pointers for 9 points.

With the win, NOVA evened its season record at 4-4. Howard’s tough season continued as they fell to 1-7.

Coach Wayne Vincent commented after the game, “It’s tough to play with only six girls. They continue to work hard. They played with a lot of heart.”

NOVA closes out its first semester schedule with home games on Dec. 16 and 20.

The 2011-12 team’s original roster included five freshman and four sophomores, but only one player from last year’s team: Paris Cantrell. Two of the freshmen, Yvette Gilliom and Kasee Hilliard, attended Garfield High School.

The third-year coach is Wayne Vincent, who is continuing to work with assistant coach Shawn Blow and new assistant Lindsay Kyle.

NOVA had nine players available for its first four games, but then the active squad dwindled for various reasons to six players for the rest of the season. The coach is expecting to add several players in the winter semester.

The season began on Nov. 2 at Hagerstown Community College where NOVA absorbed a 51-66 loss, after being down 38-17 at halftime. Lashonntae Hewitt (Edison HS) had a big game with 19 points. Next up was a trip on Nov. 4 to Baltimore where NOVA lost a close one, 64-61, to the Community College of Baltimore County-Dundalk in overtime. Zirkle led NOVA with 17.

Next on the travel list was a trip to the Howard Community College Tournament in Columbia on Nov. 12 and 13. There the visit was much more enjoyable as NOVA won its first game of the year, 45-39 over Essex County (N.J.) Community College, with Gilliom scoring 15.

Then NOVA bombed Globe Tech (N.Y.) 51-33 the next day to even their record at 2-2 as they featured balanced scoring.

The first home game saw the College of Southern Maryland visit Annandale on Nov. 17. NOVA won easily 80-56, after taking a 45-29 halftime lead. Cantrell poured in 19 points with Zirkle adding 15. NOVA thus finished November with a winning 3-2 record.

December’s first action occurred at home on Dec. 2 versus Frederick Community College.

NOVA had only six players for the game, so Coach Vincent would rotate in a new player every few minutes, giving each player a hard workout. By halftime, CSM was the team having trouble, down 28-19. They were saved only by the play of sub Destinee Jernigan, who scored 11 of their 19 points. For NOVA, Zirkle matched Jernigan’s 11 points, which included her first two 3-pointers of the year.

The beginning of the second half saw CSM suddenly find the basket as two quick scores cut the NOVA advantage to 5. NOVA took the lead back to 9, but that was their greatest lead. With about 10 minutes to go, CSM had trimmed the lead to 33-30.

Finally, with about six minutes to go, CSM tied the score at 37-all. NOVA was having a hard time scoring points.

Despite repeated NOVA timeouts, NOVA still looked confused as the offense seemed to be playing helter-skelter. It wasn’t that the NOVA players weren’t trying their hardest. Poor shots were taken, the ball was stolen and, when NOVA did have a clear shot, the ball did not drop through the hoop. It looked like they would never score.

Zirkle finally did make two free throws and Gilliom one with about three minutes to go to give NOVA their last lead at 40-38. CSM then tied it at 40-40 at 2:20. Thoughts were then directed to the fact that CSM had lost three games by a total of four points. Would that hurt or help them in this close game?

It turned out that this game did not stay close for long. CSM scored one basket, then another after a steal. After that, began a series of seven straight free throws by CSM, leading to more points. NOVA was just not scoring. Then, NOVA called a timeout when they had none left, leading to a technical foul and two of the seven free throws made by CSM.

NOVA lost 51-40, outscored in the second half 32-12. Zirkle led NOVA with 14 points.

After the game, Coach Vincent remarked, “I knew before the game that two of our players were not going to make it. We gave it a good try, and we played our hearts out. We just ran out of gas. I’m awfully proud of the team.”

The next game did not provide a breather for NOVA as they journeyed over to Rockville to play the always strong Montgomery College-Rockville team on Dec. 4. NOVA went home with a lopsided defeat 77-48.

NOVA's Paris Cantrell shoots a short shot over a Howard CC player and appears to have been fouled in NOVA's December 7 59-28 win at Annandale. Photo by Kama Storie.

NOVA's Tori Woods-Lewis barely gets her shot over leaping Howard CC player in NOVA's 59-28 win on December 7 at Annandale. Photo by Kama Storie.

NOVA’s co-ed ice hockey team began its season on Sept. 16, and has played eight regular games through Nov. 5. The NOVA team has the inherent disadvantage of playing against four-year college teams, which can have older and more experienced players as well as the possibility of drawing players from four academic classes. In addition, some of NOVA’s games this year have been against teams from a higher level of competition, but others have been against teams from their Atlantic Division of the Blue Ridge Hockey Conference.

As with most NOVA teams, new players greatly outnumber returning players, and putting together a cohesive team during the short practice season is difficult. This year seven players from last year’s team joined fifteen new players.

This year has been particularly difficult for the NOVA ice hockey team, as it has notched only a lone victory in its first eight games, with many of the contests being routs. For instance, NOVA has been on the short end of 4-19, 0-10, 1-8, 1-20, and 1-10 scores.

On Saturday, Oct. 29, NOVA hosted a new opponent, Bryn Athyn College of Pennsylvania at Prince William Ice Rink. Bryn Athyn scored the only goal of the first period at 12:05 with three seconds remaining in a power play. Bryn outshot NOVA 15-7.

In the second period, NOVA’s Casey Dunn scored from about six feet out to tie the score at 1-1. Bryn Athyn then responded with two quick close-in goals at 4:23 and 3:45 for a 3-1 lead after two periods. NOVA was again outshot 15-8.

Bryn Athyn upped its lead to 4-1 after a minute of the third period. Dunn then had the puck on a breakaway, eluded the last defender and scored from about three feet out, beating the goalie on a one-on-one encounter. NOVA peppered the goal with shots during the period, outshooting Athyn by 12-5, but no more were successful, and Athyn took the 4-2 win, its second of the year.

Afterwards, NOVA’s Barrett Haga remarked, “I think we played our first two periods very, very sloppy. The third period was very strong, We’ve got a very young team this year…It’s going to take some time… chemistry to come along ..hopefully by the end of the year.”

On Saturday, Nov. 5 NOVA hosted the James Madison hockey team at the Prince William Ice Rink in an 8 pm game. JMU dominated the action, and had taken 17 shots on goal before NOVA took its first shot of the first period. By that time, JMU led 3-0.

NOVA did score, however, on a power play goal with 5:29 left in the first period as Dunn took the pass from Chris Altice from a face-off all alone on the right side, drilling a shot into the upper right side of the goal. At that time, NOVA at least had a high efficiency in goals scored, as it had made one of three shots.

JMU came back to score about two minutes later to make it 4-1 JMU after one period. JMU had outshot NOVA 27-5 in the period.

The second period saw NOVA take more shots but with no success. JMU led at period end 7-1, again having outshot NOVA 25-11.

The third period saw the clock mercifully run continuously. Only a fight with about six minutes to go slowed the clock. JMU made three more goals for its 10-1 win, as it again outshot NOVA 18-5. For the game, JMU amassed 70 shots, a busy night for NOVA goalie Curtis Mason.

With the win, JMU’s record rose to 3-2, while NOVA’s fell to 1-7. Casey Dunn’s goal was his third in NOVA’s last two games, the only goals scored by NOVA in those games.

Afterwards, the NOVA coaches remarked “Wow,” and “No excuses.”

Sports Columnist

 The NOVA men’s soccer team’s chances for a winning season rested on the results of its final game against the Stevenson University JV team in a match on Oct. 23 near Baltimore. NOVA had beaten Stevenson about a month earlier in a close game, 2-1, in Woodbridge.

This game was even closer as neither team scored in regulation time. NOVA kept up its strong effort in overtime but finally succumbed 1-0 as it ended its season with a 4-5 record.

In earlier games, NOVA played a Randolph College team in Lynchburg on Oct. 9, but fell 2-1. Later, on Oct. 21, NOVA journeyed to Lord Fairfax Community College and defeated the Cannons 3-1 to sweep the two games between the teams. The win evened the NOVA record at 4-4 before its final game.

By Arch Scurlock

Sport Columnist 

This year’s Northern Virginia Community College women’s volleyball team carried over three players from last year’s 11-14 squad and added two new sophomores plus five freshmen.

At the end of the first month’s competition in September, the team carried a gaudy 7-2 record into what promised to be an arduous final month of competition in October. It would be playing 18 matches against often tough competition.

 Its October schedule started with a three-cornered competition on Saturday, Oct. 1 at the Annandale Ernst Gym. The first game featured a strong 13-3 Pitt Community College team from North Carolina playing NOVA, which was hampered a bit by only having few substitutes for the match. Pitt took it to NOVA quickly, winning the first game 25-14.

The second game was much closer throughout, with scores like 10-10 and 20-20.

With the score tied at 22-22, NOVA freshman Alanah Jones from Hayfield High School first served an ace, the team won the next point, and then Jones capped the win by serving another ace, making it 25-22.

NOVA hoped to maintain its momentum in the critical third game of the best-of-five match and did so early, streaking to a 6-1 lead, causing a Pitt timeout. Pitt regrouped and closed the gap to 10-8, but NOVA still maintained a several point lead until Pitt tied it at 16-16. NOVA then fell behind by a few points and two bad Pitt serves still only drew NOVA to within 23-20, from which it lost game three, 25-20.

For the fourth game, NOVA seemed to have expended its remaining energy in the third game. From a 5-4 lead, Pitt pulled away and won easily 25-12, taking the match three games to one.

After the match Coach Marcus Robinson remarked, “Once we came back to win the second game and were leading pretty well in the third game, we kept thinking they’d come back. One thing with these programs at Pitt Community College, they’re well-coached, they’re stocked with a deep roster. We had a chance. You just can’t ask for more… It does help a bit to have a deep bench.”

With the win, Pitt next played Delaware Tech which it quickly dispatched in three games, its reward being an early bus ride home.

After a brief break, NOVA played the final match of the day versus Delaware Tech. Tech gave NOVA probably more than it expected. Tech lost the first game by only 20-25. In the second game, NOVA streaked to a 17-4 lead and seemed to be waiting for the remaining points to 25 to be given to them, but Tech was in no such mood. NOVA had a 24-9 lead when Tech scored six in a row, but it finally succumbed, 25-15.

Game three was a close affair. NOVA enjoyed a four point lead, 11-7, after which Tech scored four in a row to knot the score at 11-11, bringing about a NOVA timeout. NOVA then stretched its lead to 15-11, but Tech came back again to tie it at 19-19. NOVA took a 21-19 lead, causing another Tech timeout, after which NOVA extended its lead to 23-20. Tech closed the gap to a point, 23-22.

With NOVA ahead 24-22, a bad NOVA serve left it at 24-23. But NOVA took the next point 25-23 for the game and the match, glad to have survived in the game. With its effort, Tech came the closest it had all year to winning a game.

With the win, NOVA upped its season record to 8-3 as Tech fell to 0-11.

NOVA next went on the road for eight matches. On Oct. 4, it traveled to Keyser, W.Va., to play 12-2 Potomac State College. NOVA played well, winning the third game 25-22, but overall lost three of four games and the match.

On Oct. 6 it was off to Catonsville, Md., to play the Community College of Baltimore County, which had already beaten NOVA earlier in the season 3-0. NOVA put up a good fight in the first game, losing 22-25, but only scored 19 and 17 in the next two games as it again lost the match 3-0.

At a weekend series of matches on Oct. 8 and Oct. 9 at Hagerstown Community College, NOVA split its four matches. It first lost 3-0 for the second time during the year to Montgomery Community College-Rockville, then beat Howard Community College of Maryland 3-0 and Allegany College of Maryland 3-1. Finally, it lost for the third time this year to Community College of Baltimore County but at least won one game at 25-23 and lost by only 25-27 in the fourth and final game.

After this rough weekend, NOVA’s record stood at 10-8.

The next week brought the reprieve of some seemingly easier opponents. On Oct. 11, NOVA dropped Trinity of Washington there in three games for the second time this year. On Thursday, Oct. 13 it traveled to Howard Community College in Columbia. NOVA had beaten them 3-0 five days earlier but was surprised this time, losing 3-1 by scores of 22-25, 16-25, 25-23 and 22-25.

NOVA thus had an 11-9 record heading into the final seven matches of the year. NOVA had a chance at a winning record but faced a formidable schedule. It had beaten two of the teams earlier but already lost a total of three times to two of the other teams, and the other two teams also had strong winning records. To NOVA’s advantage, at least three of the matches were at home, the last being Oct. 27.

Saidu Sesay maneuvers past defense at the Oct. 7 men's soccer game against Lord Fairfax Community College. Photo by: Dave Gent

The Northern Virginia Community College men’s soccer team dropped its Sept. 30 match at Prince George’s Community College in Largo, Md., 2-4. Prince George’s had only lost one match all year.

Next NOVA came home to Woodbridge on Friday afternoon, Oct. 7 to play the Lord Fairfax team that was undermanned, both in players and skills, from Middletown, Va.
Lord Fairfax had one lone reserve, while NOVA had over one extra team of subs.

NOVA dominated the early action in the first half but the Lord Fairfax goalie made several saves until the 21st minute when sophomore Jorgo Selencia beat two Lord Fairfax players to net a goal from about five yards out to put NOVA up 1-0.

Minute 32 saw a pass directed to NOVA’s Alejandro Gomez who had gotten behind the Lord Fairfax defense and he lofted in a shot from about 8 yards out to put NOVA up 2-0.

In the 37th minute Sergio San Martin found Andres Cifuentes with a long pass and his shot from about 10 yards out eluded the goalie to send NOVA up 3-0 at halftime.

NOVA first half goalie PedroVillela had a quiet half as Lord Fairfax mounted little offense and he had to make no saves by halftime.

The second half saw NOVA come roaring out, intent on pressing its obvious advantage over Lord Fairfax. In the first minute Jorgo Selencia shot into the goal from only about two yards out the rebound off the goalie of his earlier shot to make it 4-0, his second goal of the game. Six minutes later, Santiago Lopera fed Jaime Kanashiro for a shot from about 10 yards out which made it 5-0.

NOVA was about to run away with the game. Coach Brian Robertson soon inserted a number of substitutes into the game and later mentioned, “We took some of the stronger kids out to tone it down a bit to make it more of a match.”

His objective was reached, as Lord Fairfax’s defense stiffened and they even were able to take a couple of decent shots. Second-half goalie Erin Treks was even credited with a save. There was no more scoring as NOVA had notched its second 5-0 shutout of the year as the team evened its record at 3-3.

Coach Robertson remarked after the match, “We had more numbers, and it looked like we played the game a little bit more together today. Hopefully we can take the same approach against more polished teams. That’s our challenge now… Today was a good day for us. The players we have are a little bit quicker, a little more skillful. We played a little more organized.”
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Alejandro Gomez fights for possession of the ball against Lord Fairfax Community College. Photo by: Dave Gent

NOVA student Ayah Elborhany (Business major) greets World War II veteran from Honor Flight from Raleigh, North Carolina at Reagan National Airport on October 26 along with NOVA student Sancho Jacinto (Paralegal Studies.) Photo by Arch Scurlock.

By Arch Scurlock
Staff Reporter

Northern Virginia Community College, through its Alexandria campus community relations coordinator, is again sponsoring several greeting events of Honor Flights from all over the United States during the year bringing WW II veterans to Washington, D.C., and is looking for volunteer greeters.

The flights will be greeted at Reagan Washington National Airport followed by a visit to the World War II Memorial in Washington.

This is a chance to say “Thank you” to these heroes of another generation who sacrificed so much for their country. The veterans are sadly passing away at a great rate now, and this visit is a last chance for many of them to visit their memorial – some of them for the first time.

The veterans will first meet with their congressional representatives on Capitol Hill upon their arrival and then proceed to the WW II Memorial.

Be among the greeters at the airport of an Honor Flight on either Wednesday, Oct. 26 or Wednesday, Nov. 2 along with greeters from other organizations like the USO, Girl Scouts and various elementary school groups.
It’s a real treat to see the expressions on these elderly veterans as they enter the terminal on foot, walker-assisted or in wheelchairs as they first see, hear and experience the raucous welcome.

Volunteers will also have the chance later to speak with the veterans at the WW II Memorial about their wartime experiences.

The Oct. 26 is especially enlivened with the appearance of the NOVA Alexandria Band playing patriotic tunes and marches.

If you would like to participate, e-mail kpbalbuena@nvcc.edu with the following:
-Preferred date(s) of attendance
-Name as it appears on your driver’s license/ID
-Date of birth

A van for greeters will leave the Alexandria campus at 8:45 a.m. sharp on both days and will return around 12 noon. If you can just make part of the day, arrangements may be made for that possibility.

What is known as “The Greatest Generation” won’t be with us much longer. They should all get to see the monument to their service and sacrifice.

NOVA members who greeted Honor Flights at Reagan National Airport on October 26, including from left Sancho Jacinto (Paralegal Studies major), Sandra Vargas Ortega (Biology), Arch Scurlock (General Studies), Frederick Badu (Biology), Ayah Elborhany (Business), Ken Balbuena (NOVA Community Relations Coordinator) and Amsley Pietranton (Business). Photo by Arch Scurlock.

NOVA has recently announced that it has joined the National Junior College Athletic Association, effective for the 2011-12 academic year.

With membership among the more than 500 two-year colleges in 43 states in the NJCAA, NOVA student-athletes gain the opportunity to compete at a higher level of competition, for post-season competitions, including national championships, and for prestigious academic and athletic awards. It also includes NOVA with colleges that require uniform eligibility requirements for its student-athletes and give their student-athletes increased visibility with respect for possible recruitment by four-year colleges.

NOVA President Robert G. Templin, Jr. said about the announcement, “We are thrilled to be joining the NJCAA. Club sports teams have been a long tradition at NOVA and the College has fielded numerous athletic teams since it was established in 1965. By joining NJCAA, our athletes will have greater opportunities for winning championships and academic awards.”

NOVA will transition most of its current roster of sports teams to an NJCAA schedule in 2012-13, while continuing with a club sports schedule for this academic year. Teams making the transition include women’s volleyball and basketball, and men’s soccer, basketball and lacrosse. Its co-ed ice hockey team will retain membership in the American Collegiate Hockey Association. An unknown additional women’s sport is slated to be added for the first NJCAA year.

NOVA also announced in an August press release that in response to a spring 2011 student survey strongly supporting increased athletic and recreational programs, extra support will be added for intramural sports programming.

The NJCAA is the primary governing body of two-year college athletics and the second largest national intercollegiate organization in the US. Each year, nearly 60,000 student-athletes compete in 28 sports, and the NJCAA sponsors 48 national championship events.

The upgrades seem appropriate for a college including over 75,000 students on six campuses in the influential northern Virginia region, one of the largest community colleges in the country.