When Wilde Lake won the third set over visiting Atholton Tuesday night, 29-27, the Wildecats hugged each other and celebrated like they had just won the match. It didn't matter that the Wildecats would ultimately lose the match, 25-23, 25-21, 27-29, 25-15, because they had just taken a set from the team that knocked off the 14-time state champion: Centennial.
"When we lost the third game and they celebrated like they won the match, I said 'Every single set you lose, you have that weight on you now'," Atholton coach Dave Decker said.
Atholton's 3-1 win over Centennial last Tuesday ended a 49-match league winning streak for the Eagles, and was the Raiders first win over Centennial in more than 20 years.
"We wanted it so bad. All day in the hallway we were (saying) we want to play now. We were just so pumped up for that game and we went out there and gave it everything we had and we won," said senior libero Vashti Burke, who had a team-high 103 digs entering the week. "It was insane. Everybody was coming up to us in the hallway (the next day in school) … it was such a good feeling."
But now that Atholton is 6-0 in the league (7-1 overall after an Aug. 30 loss to IAAM A Conference champ Mount de Sales), Decker wants to keep his team focused on the tough road in front of them.
Another 6-0 team, River Hill, looms on the horizon Oct. 20, the Raiders' senior night.
"Six and 0 comes with a lot of challenges now. It's Howard County," he said. "They're learning those lessons, they're learning how to play. We played flat tonight (against Wilde Lake) and we almost got taken by them. We made a lot of errors that we don't usually make."
Burke, who had to sit out last year with an injury, says that her team hasn't gotten ahead of itself.
"Everyone has a team this year, everyone might be around the same level … we're going to take every game like it's the best team in the county," she said.
Burke's sister Naomi, a junior setter, led the Raiders with 141 assists coming into this week.
Naomi and Vashti's older sister, Rachel, led Reservoir to the state championship match in 2006.
The two younger sisters played for the Gators when Naomi was a freshman on JV and Vashti was a sophomore on varsity, but they're getting to play together for the first time this year after transferring to Atholton.
"It's really cool being able to play with her," Vashti said. "We saw what we had at tryouts and we thought we had a team this year and that we were going to do great."
In addition to their stellar defense, the Raiders have benefited from the play of McKay Evans (64 kills, 23 aces), Natalie Alper (54 kills, 76 digs) and Amanda Goodspeed (39 kills, 22 blocks), among others.
While the Wildecats fell to 1-5 in the league with the loss, coach Caitlin Williams was pleased with her team's effort.
"This was the Wilde Lake team that I put together in August that I've been waiting to see, we played as a unit and I'm excited to see what thay have in store as we continue," she said.
Wilde Lake was led by Michaela Tummings (7 kills), Kelly Surkovich (6 kills), Kourtney Harrison (3 point blocks) and Azita Nejaddehghan (15 digs) in the loss.
Around the league
Glenelg (3-2) earned its biggest win of the season Tuesday night, becoming the second team in a week to knock off the defending county and District V champion, Centennial (4-2), 27-25, 25-21, 19-25, 27-25.
Morgan Perry led the Glenelg offense with more than 20 kills.
The Gladiators were coming off of a strong performance at last weekend's Linganore Lancer tournament. Glenelg defeated Walkersville, Frederick and Oakdale in pool play, with its only loss coming to eventual champion Century, who they split with (18-25, 25-19). In the tournament playoffs, Glenelg met county rival Marriotts Ridge and won 25-21, 25-17. The Gladiators trailed 19-7 in the first game but went on an 18-2 run to complete the comeback. In the finals, Glenelg lost to Century, 25-21 and 25-17, but took second place and finished 9-3. Morgan Perry (47 kills) and setter Cameron Long were each named to the all-tournament team.
The Mustangs finished the tournament 8-2 overall, with their only losses coming to Glenelg in the semifinal. Middle hitter Sam Johnson was named to the all-tournament team. The regular season match between Marriotts Ridge (4-1) and Glenelg, which was originally scheduled for Sept. 15 but postponed because of water damage at Marriotts Ridge and gym renovations at Glenelg, has been rescheduled for Oct. 10 at Glenelg. Marriotts Ridge's gym floor is expected to be playable by next week, and the Mustangs are scheduled to have their first home match of the season Oct. 13 against undefeated River Hill.
Mt. Hebron (3-3) rebounded from a sweep at Reservoir last week to knock off Howard (2-4), 20-25, 25-18, 25-17, 25-14.
"Our defense was just spot on for us today," coach Michael Moynihan said. "They played like a team today."
Hammond improved to 2-4 and 4-4 overall with a 3-1 (23-25, 25-18, 25-15, 25-20) victory over Oakland Mills (0-6).
The Golden Bears made 10 hitting errors and missed three serves in the first game loss but settled in behind libero Maddie Chervenak and hitter Meagan Hitesman — who just returned after two weeks sidelined with an injury — to roll to the win.
River Hill (6-0) kept its pristine record intact by sweeping Reservoir (4-2), 25-11, 25-15, 25-18.
Marriotts Ridge (3-1) at Long Reach (0-5)
Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland
Glenelg Country won its fifth match in a row, 3-0, over Mount Carmel to improve to 5-2 in the C Conference, while Chapelgate fell to 3-5 overall after a 28-26, 25-16, 25-19 to Pallotti, dropping to 1-4 in the A Conference.