Professor Poland

Press Release

Dr. Charles Poland of Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) has received the 2012 Outstanding Faculty Award, administered by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia and sponsored by Dominion.

Poland is one of 12 faculty members from Virginia’s public and private colleges and universities who received the award, the highest honor bestowed upon faculty in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The award recognizes excellence in teaching, research, knowledge integration, and public service.

“On behalf of the NOVA community, we would like to express our congratulations to Dr. Poland for being selected as a recipient of this prestigious award,” said NOVA President Robert G. Templin Jr. “Dr. Poland has touched the lives of thousands of students since he began at the College in 1967. Students have embraced and praised his hands-on approach in directly engaging history and its artifacts. This is evidenced by the mobile Civil War museum now installed at NOVA that includes hundreds of historical documents and objects.”

Poland teaches courses in U.S. and local history, Western civilization, and the Civil War at NOVA’s Annandale Campus. His teaching career spans more than five decades. Since 1977, he has conducted celebrated field-trip courses to major and minor battlefields of the Civil War. He has traveled more than 120,000 miles to battlefields from Alexandria to the Ohio River and from Gettysburg to Appomattox, giving hundreds of lectures to students varying in age from teenagers to senior citizens.

He has received awards for teaching excellence including the “Most Outstanding Faculty Member” and the NOVA Alumni Federation Faculty of the Year.

Poland has a deep appreciation for local history, which is due in part to having ancestors that trace back to the colonial period in Loudoun County. His published work on the subject includes “From Frontier to Suburbia: One of America’s Fastest Growing Counties,” “A Loudoun County Story” and “The Lure of Loudoun: Centuries of Changes in Virginia’s Emerald County.”

As a scholar of the Civil War, he has placed special emphasis in his publications on little known military activities and now forgotten heroes who dominated public opinion in 1861. His writing reveals citizen soldiers’ romanticized expectations of glory and their dreams shattered by cruel realities of war.

Poland holds a doctorate in American history from Western Colorado University. He and his wife live in Loudoun County and have two daughters.

The NOVA Police Basketball Community College Tournament will be held Feb. 10. Interested in participating on the student team in the second annual NOVA Community College Basketball 3-on-3 Tournament? Contact Officer Tony Ong (tong@nvcc.edu) or register with Annandale Student Activities Coordinator Calvin Haney (chaney@nvcc.edu).

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.

Daquan Paige performs "Swim Good" by Frank Ocean at the Loudoun NOVA Idol auditions. Photo by Carina Thornton.

Ana Guerra
Staff Reporter

It’s back. Northern Virginia Community College’s popular singing competition, NOVA Idol, has returned and the crown is up for grabs yet again. NOVA Idol has gained much popularity throughout the past years through intense competition and even a little controversy.

Last year’s first-place winner, Jasmine Williams, is also the daughter of the vocal coach for NOVA Idol. The first-place achievement by Williams raised eyebrows, leaving people wondering: can the judges cast a sincerely unbiased vote when a colleague’s daughter is competing and a large amount of money is on the line?

That’s right. Students are not just competing for a title or a medal. Four thousand dollars is awarded to the first-place winner. The second-place winner receives $2,500. And $1,000 goes to the third-place winner.

The cash prizes do not have to be used toward schooling; the money can be utilized as the winners see fit.

This year’s auditions ran from Nov. 3 to Nov. 15 at the various campuses.

Those chosen will move on to the semi-finals, judged by previous NOVA Idol winners, to be held Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. Students are invited to attend this performance. The judges will select six contestants to perform at the finale on March 23 in the Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center at the Alexandria campus. The votes of both the audience and judges will be tallied to determine the first, second, and third-place winners.

For more information, visit NOVAIdol.com.

Performing "Chasing Pavements" by Adele, Krista Frost sings for a chance to move on to the semi-finals at NOVA Idol. Photo by Carina Thornton.

Zach Boren sings "Your Song" as performed by Ewan McGregor in the movie, "Moulin Rouge." Photo by Carina Thornton.

Bria Daniels, a student at Potomac Falls High School, performs "Hypothetically" by Lyfe Jennings. Photo by Traci Brooks.

Kristin Deegan, a student at Robinson Secondary School, earns positive feedback from the judges for her rendition of "Who You Are" by Jessie J. Photo by Traci Brooks.

Erik Johnson, a student at Loudoun Campus and employee at the UPS Store, sings "Superstar" by Luther Vandross. Photo by Traci Brooks.

Erika Anderson sings "I'm Going Down" by Mary J. Blige while auditioning at the Alexandria campus. Photo by KJ Mushung.

Robert Duquette auditions for the 2012 NOVA Idol competition by singing "The Christmas Song" by Mel Torme. Photo by Kama Storie.

Jin Shin auditions for the 2012 NOVA Idol competition by singing "Open Arms" by Journey. Photo by Kama Storie.

Alexandra Langley auditions for the 2012 NOVA Idol competition by singing "Hero" by Mariah Carey. Photo by Kama Storie.

A lively performance by Mari Gragne, a ministry student from Woodbridge campus. Photo by Dave Gent.

Vanessa Lopez, an education student, at the NOVA Idol auditions. Photo by Dave Gent.

H. James William Jenkins, an engineering student, impresses the judges panel with his own song. Photo by Dave Gent.

Courtney Quick, a student from Manassas, likes what she hears from the judges. Photo by Dave Gent.

Kyung "Sophia" Lim, a science student from Manassas, performs for the judges at the NOVA Idol auditions. Photo by Dave Gent.

A Hispanic Heritage Festival held at NOVA's Alexandria campus in 1983. The crowd can be seen in the reflection of the window. Photo by Dean Nettles.

A Hispanic Heritage Festival held at NOVA's Annandale campus in 2011. Photo by Ana Guerra.

NOVA Alexandria police officer, Lt. John Weinstein, serves food to students Jiyeong Kim and Yejin Hong during a campus barbeque in September. Photo by: KJ Mushung

By Lt. John Weinstein
Commander, District 3

 One of the National Capital Region’s best-kept law enforcement secrets is the high level of capability and professionalism in the NOVA College Police Department. With only 49 sworn officers we may not be large, but we are good. We train extensively, have nationally-recognized subject matter experts in key public service areas, enjoy strong relationships with surrounding jurisdictions and play an active role in training police officers from surrounding jurisdictions.

You might be surprised to know the high level of training a recruit goes through to become a certified Virginia police officer. First, there is the attendance at the Northern Virginia Criminal Justice Academy. During a recruit’s 850 hours at the academy, a number which equates to more than a year in a college program, he or she will study Virginia’s criminal code, become proficient with firearms and emergency vehicle operations, learn defensive tactics, criminal investigation, crime scene management and how to deal with everything from hazardous materials to domestic and sexual abuse, terrorism and various special needs individuals. Additionally, all NOVA officers are certified to provide first aid and to use the Automatic External Defibrillator.

Upon graduating the academy, the recruit still undergoes a field training program where he or she is accompanied for two to four months by an experienced and specially trained officer who evaluates the new officer’s job performance. Only when the field evaluator assesses a recruit to be proficient can he or she become a fully certified Virginia law enforcement officer with all the rights and obligations of other police officers in the Commonwealth. Those rights allow us to do things like make arrests and conduct criminal investigations.

Beyond our extensive entry-level training, NOVA police employs highly trained officers with diverse experience. In addition to our current chief, Daniel Dusseau, who has more than 22 years of experience, we have two former chiefs of police, plus officers who have served at various ranks in large and small departments. We have a New York City officer with 30 years of experience, officers with military experience, former corrections officers and dispatchers. Their skill and experience are consistently demonstrated when the department conducts its annual active shooter training and at other times when we train jointly with agencies such as Fairfax County and Alexandria City police departments.

Our officers are widely recognized as subject-matter experts in numerous fields. We have an officer who has a Ph.D., and is nationally recognized as an expert in weapons of mass destruction and international terrorism. We have state-certified firearms, driving and defensive tactics instructors, a bicycle patrol and gang specialists. We speak a total of more than 10 languages.

Our officers are regularly invited to teach at several area police academies which train officers from more than 30 northern Virginia jurisdictions.     

The college can be proud of its police department. Our officers offer a variety of services, such as escorts to vehicles, self-defense training for women and the full range of normal police services. We take our requirement to protect and serve seriously.

If you would like to know more about us or are interested in working with us, give us a call at our college-wide dispatch number: 703-764-5000.

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.

NOVA students take part in a women's self-defense course taught by the NOVA Police Department. The students learn basic self-defense skills and how to gain a sense of confidence and self empowerment. Photo by Kama Storie.