Volleyball: Atholton continues hot start

It has long been said that in Howard County volleyball there are the haves and the have-nots: those teams that have rosters stocked with club players, and those that do not.

For some time now, Atholton has been one of those teams with enough club players to spill over onto the bench, but the Raiders haven't had the wins to show for it.

This is the year the Raiders say that all of that changes.

After Tuesday night's five-game win (22-25, 25-19, 20-25, 26-24, 15-13) over visiting Marriotts Ridge, Atholton is now 3-0 in the county, and 4-1 overall.

With one more league victory, they'll match or exceed their win total against county competition from 2006 (4-9), 2007 (4-10), 2009 (4-9) and 2010 (3-10).

"We have the team chemistry this year, we have the kids that are buying into the program and I love this group of kids. They're just so fun to coach and they're smart," Atholton coach Dave Decker said. "And nine of them are juniors."

It's not as if Atholton has been completely without success. In 2008, led by All-County players Kat Flanagan and Jamie Frank, the Raiders were 8-5 in the league and finished with 11 wins.

That was also the year that they earned their only win over Marriotts Ridge, the 2009 and 2010 2A South regional champion, until Tuesday night.

The match was about as close as it could be, and back and forth all of the way.

Neither team broke away in the first set until Atholton went on a 4-1 run to take a 19-16 lead. But after a missed serve ended the tear, Marriotts Ridge — the 2009 and 2010 2A South regional champion — rallied with seven unanswered points to take a commanding lead that it would not relinquish.

In game two, Atholton forged ahead, 18-10, and was never really pushed. In game three, the two teams dueled to a 20-20 tie, but then the Mustangs used a five-point flourish, culiminating in a pair of Robin Laux aces, to earn the 2-1 advantage.

When Marriotts Ridge went ahead, 15-10, in game four, it looked like its success against Atholton would continue. But after calling a time-out, Decker seemed to get his team motivated.

"In game four they decided to be winners and they decided (not) to lay down. That's the question I asked them. I said 'How do you want to end this game, do you want to go out winning? Because you deserve to win, you deserve to be a top program.'," Decker said.

Coming out of the break, Atholton senior middle hitter Amanda Goodspeed recorded a point block and a kill, igniting a nine-point streak. In that game alone, Goodspeed had three blocks and three kills.

"We got our blocks up and our passes up which was a game changer, and then our hits went down too. Really the game dynamics just all changed," she said.

The Mustangs battled back to tie the set at 21-21, 22-22, 23-23, and 24-24, but Atholton finally forced a tie-breaking fifth set on a pair of Marriotts Ridge errors.

"This was our first look at a competitive team," said coach Amanda Olsen, whose team is now 2-1. "I don't think we ever had the momentum, we were always coming back from behind and then when we did have the lead we let them come back.

"We just didn't adjust when we needed to adjust."

In the fifth set, the momentum was all on Atholton's side, as they took a commanding 13-8 lead. Marriotts Ridge did put together a 4-1 run, including a pair of Robin Laux kills, but Goodspeed finally shut the door with her third kill of the final game.

Goodspeed led the Raiders with 12 kills and nine blocks, while Natalie Alper (11 kills) and McKay Evans (10 kills, 9 aces) also made double-digit contributions.

Atholton has also been helped this season by the Burke sisters: junior setter Naomi (22 assists, 13 digs) and senior libero Vashti (24 digs).

"This was our first five-game match and it was exciting," Goodspeed said. "We hope to have many more" exciting matches.

Marriotts Ridge on the other hand, would settle for a home match. Due to water damage to their gym surface, all of the Mustangs' contests have been on the road, including a 60-mile round trip to Manchester Valley High.

"We haven't been in our gym for two weeks, we haven't even been able to practice in our gym, but I don't think that had anything to do with it," Olsen said. "We have some things that we need to work on but I think they have the potential to bounce back from this and have a successful season."

The Mustangs were led offensively by Laux (7 kills), Nancy Schwartz (7), Lindsay Bay (6), Samantha Johnson (5) and Dana Koehler (5).

Around the league

Howard 3, Oakland Mills 1 (25-17, 25-12, 15-25, 11-25)

Allie Cable had five aces and 23 digs for the Scorpions.

Reservoir 3, Glenelg 0 (32-30, 25-18, 25-16)

Hammond 3, Long Reach 2 (20-25, 15-25, 25-21, 25-23, 15-9)

For Hammond, Maddie Chervenak had 29 digs while Mikhaila Abarcar had 21 digs and eight kills.

"The whole group played great defense and kept the ball in play," coach Ken McLaughlin said.

River Hill 3, Wilde Lake 1 (25-13, 25-13, 20-25, 25-11)

Centennial 3, Mt. Hebron 0