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.

By: Arch Scurlock

Stay updated by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter.