“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.

Since losing its first three matches, the NOVA men’s soccer team has been on a winning streak, winning its next three.

First, on Sept. 11 the team traveled to Owings Mill, Md., and shut out the Stevenson University JV 1-0 for its first win of the year.

OK, there wasn’t the electricity present that there was at the beginning of the Redskins’ season when they hosted the Cowboys at FedEx Field on a recent Sunday night. And the several dozen fans who sought out the shade from nearby trees to combat the blistering hot afternoon certainly didn’t equal the 90,000-plus spectators there. Still…

After initial practices, NOVA’s team competed in four scrimmages in late August before officially opening its season at the Howard Community College tournament in Columbia, Md., in which it played four matches in two days.

The Northern Virginia Community College annual sports banquet took place on the evening of April 29 at the Springfield Hilton Hotel. It was organized by NOVA’s collegewide Student Activities Coordinator Brian Anweiler.

The event began with remarks by Dr. Peter Maphumulo, provost of the Alexandria campus. He discussed the importance of sports within the overall NOVA experience, and mentioned that NOVA would soon be considering whether or not to strengthen its sports program.

Most NOVA graduates eventually work in such areas as in offices, in selling, as nurses or perhaps in an auto shop. Not Kris “Savage” McCray, 28, who smashes bodies and bangs heads in a cage ring in mixed martial arts.

Mixed martial arts includes striking and grappling techniques and appears to be a combination of boxing, wrestling, kick boxing, and jiu-jitsu. MMA fighting has become popular on network and cable television, such as on Spike TV, and on pay telecasts.

The NOVA men’s lacrosse team waited until the last seconds to edge the University of Mary Washington’s lacrosse team 11-10 on Saturday afternoon, April 10 on the UMW campus in Fredericksburg.

With five seconds to go and the score tied 10-10, NOVA retained possession behind the UMW goal as a missed shot went out of bounds. NOVA’s Thuc Tran threw the ball in and found Pat Roche just behind the goal. He went around the right side of the goal and threw in a close-in unexpected shot over his right shoulder, scoring the winning goal as time ran out. This gave the amazing 11-10 win to NOVA. To cap it off, this was NOVA’s first lead of the day.

Canadian author Denise Chong spoke about her most recent book Egg on Mao at the Annandale campus on the afternoon of April 8.
Her book follows the life of one of three persons, who during the Tiananmen Square student sit-in in Beijing, China in 1989, threw eggs filled with paint at the giant portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong in the Square. They were subsequently arrested, termed vandals and counter-revolutionary reactionaries, and sentenced to various terms in prison, from 16 years to life.

With the arrival of spring and warmer weather, car-related events become common. With automotive and auto body courses there should be some interest in car-related activities.
If you are interested in participating in, watching or perhaps just want to find out more about the particular cars you are considering buying, then the following list of car activities in DC and the surrounding areas should be of value.

NOVA’s men’s basketball team concluded its season by losing in the second round of the Virginia Community College System tournament to Tidewater Community College on March 12 in Roanoke, 95-73. NOVA had hoped to fare better against Tidewater, as it had lost two previous games to them by only two points in overtime. NOVA wound up 11-15 overall and 4-5 in the VCCS during the regular season.