“Let’s play some volleyball!” they shouted. The NOVA women’s volleyball team did just that during the week of Sept. 20, squeezing in three single matches in four days.

First, the team journeyed to Rockville, Md., to play the Montgomery College-Rockville Knights. Recently, Montgomery College had been tough on NOVA during an opening season tournament match, so NOVA hoped to repay them with a tougher match. NOVA was able to do that, yet still lost in three sets: 25-16, 25-18 and 25-16.

As Coach Robinson mentioned later, “Montgomery College has a strong program and attracts some very good players.”

With the loss, NOVA dropped back to .500 for the year at 5-5, while Montgomery College’s record went to 8-1.

NOVA had little time to relax as its next match came the following evening at Annandale’s Ernst Gym against Trinity Washington University. This match looked like it might be interesting since NOVA was taking on a four-year college, though Trinity’s record was only 1-7.The suspense didn’t last long, though, because NOVA took three sets in less than an hour. Trinity appeared to have very few set plays, and no one who could effectively spike the ball. NOVA’s team was clearly superior in athletic performance.

In the first game, Trinity tied it early at 1-1, but with Zoie Seay serving, NOVA ran off 12 straight points, taking a 13-1 lead. At 16-5, Elisavet Loukaidou began serving for NOVA and closed out the game, 25-5.

The next game saw Trinity improve markedly. NOVA still led early but Trinity evened the score at 11-11 on a NOVA error, and NOVA took a timeout. NOVA regrouped and took a 17-11 lead on strong plays by Monique Smith and Nikelle Willis. Trinity could only close the gap to 22-17 with NOVA’s Rachel Barfield making the game winning point to end the game at 25-17.

In the third game, Trinity actually led at 4-3, but NOVA slowly pulled away to a 25-15 win, with a Seay smash for the game clincher.

With this win, NOVA’s record moved to 6-5 while Trinity’s dropped to 1-8.

NOVA had one day off before taking on Washington Bible College of Lanham, Md., a team NOVA had easily beaten two weeks earlier.

Surprisingly in the first game, NOVA seemed flat, delivering four bad serves while Washington played well. The score was tied at 12-12 when NOVA finally woke up and scored 13 of the next 14 points to win the game 25-13.

Coach Robinson later noted, “We seemed to take them for granted in the first set.”

The second and third sets were a better indication of NOVA’s athletic superiority and renewed determination, as NOVA took the games by identical 25-7 scores to win the match over the game but outmanned Washington Bible team in less than 50 minutes.

NOVA’s record climbed to 7-5 with the win.

NOVA’s unbeaten home streak then is in jeopardy on Oct. 7 for an Ernst Gym match versus the strong Potomac State (W. Va.) College squad, which earlier beat NOVA. Coach Robinson said he hoped the effects of Potomac’s long bus ride, including some rush hour traffic, to Annandale with give his squad an additional edge.

By: Arch Scurlock

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