The aces came in bunches for Oakland Mills on Tuesday.
Shay Shounmi had three in a row in the first set. Merina Seldon had four straight in the second. Rachel Snead added three consecutive aces in the second set, as did Alana Joseph. Jordyn Reese and Naimah Jangha – they also put up three in a row each in the third set.
"I wasn't the only one who had a lot of aces. Everyone had a lot of aces," said Nya Lightfoot, who had four aces and a team-high eight kills in the Scorpions' straight set, 27-25, 25-9, 25-10 victory over visiting Chesapeake. "We do work on a lot of serving in practice ... and we're always told to serve aggressively by coach [Kristin] Anderson and we did and it turned out pretty successful."
In total, Oakland Mills (2-2) had 28 aces – including 13 in the second set – with seven different players tallying at least three each. Jangha, who also had five kills, led the team with six.
"It was a game changer," said Anderson. "We're a much stronger team than what we put out in that first set and I told them straight up, you're giving the game, you're making it a lot easier for them to take you on. Obviously the minute I said that, the minute we got to make them move around – you put all the pressure on them and force them to make the errors."
The Cougars (1-3) opened up the first set with a 6-1 lead, but the Scorpions battled back with strong serves. Shounmi, who led the team with 23 assists, had three aces to tie the match at 10, and later Lightfoot had two in a row to give her team a 20-18 advantage. Errors kept Chesapeake in it, but a Cougars service error and an ace from Snead gave Oakland Mills the first-set win, 27-25.
That's when the Scorpions took Anderson's message to heart. They opened the second set with a 3-1 lead, and Seldon's four consecutive aces made it 8-1. They eventually took a commanding 17-5 advantage, and Joseph (7 kills, 4 digs, 5 aces) helped close out the set with a kill and three more aces.
"We've had problems with serve receives, and that's the one thing we were talking about the other day," said Chesapeake coach Mike Gimon. "We obviously need more work on it and they realized that. ... We went back to some old habits, throwing our arms out instead of moving our feet, not talking to each other."
Oakland Mills started the third set slow, trailing 6-2, but found momentum once again behind the service line. This time it was Reese with three straight aces to tie the set at 8, and after a Cougars point, the Scorpions caught fire. They rattled off 14 straight points – which included two kills from Lightfoot and three from Joseph, as well as three straight aces from Jangha – to take a commanding 22-9 lead.
The set and match ended fittingly – on an ace from Lightfoot.
"We just needed to be more aggressive on our side," Lightfoot said. "We worked on a lot of offense this week during practice and we had to pull it out during the game. Coach Anderson has set very high expectations for us."
Anderson, who was key for Centennial's 2008 state championship team – the last county team to win a state title – says she is pushing her team constantly in practice to improve. So far, she likes what she has seen.
"I think they're responding nicely. I think it's a different form of coaching than they've ever experienced during the high school season," she said. "... I think they've never been pushed or challenged to this extreme before and every day, day by day, to make each other one percent better in practice. Even from Day 1 where we started, they're a completely different team."
Gimon said his team will certainly be spending more time on serve receive, but added that he has already seen some progression from their opening match.
"We are definitely a growing team," he said. "We definitely played much better than where we started in the first game of the season, so we have progressed. Once we get back in the county, we have teams in the county we know that if we play the way we have been playing, we should be able to take them on and go toe-to-toe with them."
Allie Fisher led the Cougars with four kills, two blocks and an ace.
Oakland Mills (0-2 county, 2-2 overall) def. Chesapeake, 3-0 [27-25, 25-9, 25-10]
Other scores:
Atholton (2-0, 3-1) def. Severna Park, 3-1 [26-24, 25-8, 17-25, 25-23]
Atholton stats: Lisa Zoch (10 kills, 1 assist, 6 digs, 1 block, 1 ace), Elise Park (8 digs), Sam Miller (4 kills, 16 digs, 1 block, 2 aces), Hope Kelly (3 kills, 16 assists, 5 digs, ½ block, 2 aces), Kelly Simons (1 kill, 13 assists, 1 dig, 2 aces), Brooke Mason (9 kills, 2 digs, 1 ½ blocks, 1 ace), Nikita Rajarajan (6 kills, 1 block), Kendall Perdue (3 kills).
Long Reach (0-2, 2-3) def. Meade, 3-0 [25-17, 25-14, 25-21]
Long Reach stats: Angelina Casserly (14 kills, 3 aces, 2 blocks, 1 dig), Ibukun Sokoya (5 digs, 1 ace, 8 kills), Grace Kelly (4 assists, 3 aces, 7 digs), Rachel Dotson (3 aces, 4 kills, 2 digs)
Reservoir (2-0, 4-0) def. Southern, 3-0 [26-24, 25-20, 25-9]
Reservoir stats: Amaka Chukwujekwu (13 kills, 5 aces), Bethany Spicher (4 kills), Enitan Omowela (3 kills, 3 blocks), Brooke Saunderson (5 aces, 7 digs, 22 assists), Elizabeth Harvey (3 aces, 10 digs), Pam Chukwujekwu (2 blocks), Sydney Allen (2 kills, 12 digs)
Mt. Hebron (1-1, 3-1) def. Annapolis, 3-0 [25-9, 25-9, 25-6]
Marriotts Ridge (0-2, 2-2) def. Old Mill, 3-0 [25-23, 25-19, 25-17]
Centennial (1-1, 2-2) def. Broadneck, 3-1 [25-15, 25-13, 20-25, 20-25, 15-6]
Wilde Lake (2-0, 4-0) def. Glen Burnie, 3-0
South River def. River Hill (1-1, 1-3), 3-0
Arundel def. Howard (2-0, 3-1), 3-2
Hammond (0-2, 2-2) def. Northeast, 3-1