Mt. Hebron coach Michael Moynihan calls it fun.

Reservoir coach Carole Ferrante calls it a mess.

Centennial coach Larry Schofield calls it parity.

Others might call it chaos.

But whatever you call it, it's clear that Howard County volleyball no longer falls into a neat pecking order.

Aside from River Hill, which continues its dominance at 8-0, every team in the league has at least two losses after Tuesday night. There are now five teams — Atholton, Centennial, Glenelg, Marriotts Ridge and Reservoir — logjammed behind River Hill with 6-2 league records.

"There was a very big group that graduated last year that was very much in control of what was going on, and now it's anybody's game," Ferrante said.

The mayhem all started two weeks ago when Atholton shocked 14-time state champ Centennial, which had not lost a league match since 2007, a stretch of 49 contests.

A week later, Glenelg — which had lost to Reservoir and River Hill — also knocked off Centennial. Two days after that, last Thursday, Mt. Hebron (4-4) handed Atholton its first league loss of the season.

On Monday, Glenelg defeated rival Marriotts Ridge, in five sets

Then on Tuesday, Oct. 11, Reservoir — whose only losses are to Centennial and River Hill — gave Atholton its second loss in a row and Marriotts Ridge defeated Mt. Hebron in five sets after trailing 2-0. Read below for more on those two matches.

"The season is coming together where all of the big teams are facing the other big teams," Moynihan said. "Everybody has a great squad, they're playing good defense and everybody's big in the middle. It's pretty fun to be in this county."

And the fun is not over yet. On Thursday, River Hill visits Marriotts Ridge and Glenelg visits Reservoir. Then next Tuesday, Centennial visits River Hill while Reservoir travels to Marriotts Ridge. Next Thursday, Atholton hosts River Hill. Then on Saturday, Oct. 22, Centennial, Reservoir and River Hill will take on some of the top teams from around Maryland (Northern, Broadneck, Severna Park, Good Counsel, Mount de Sales and Towson) in the second annual Gator Invitational at Reservoir.

Marriotts Ridge 3, Mt. Hebron 2

Marriotts Ridge, which played its first seven matches of the season on the road due to gym repairs and was coming off of a five-set loss to rival Glenelg, needed a win to build momentum heading into its showdown with undefeated River Hill on Thursday.

Mt. Hebron, which has had an up-and-down season so far but was on a roll after upsetting previously undefeated Atholton last Thursday, needed a win to avoid a letdown.

Neither team could afford to lose, but one team had to, and in the end Marriotts Ridge prevailed at Mt. Hebron, 23-25, 24-26, 25-13, 25-20, 15-9.

The Mustangs had come up short in five-game matches against Atholton and Glenelg prior to Tuesday's win.

"We have had trouble fighting for the past few games, just keeping the lead consistently," said senior Robin Lau, who helped clinch the win with three kills and a point block in the decisive fifth set. "It's good to see that we can beat the good teams."

The Mustangs led game one, 21-19, before Mt. Hebron rallied to tie it, 22-22, on a Paige Coolahan point block, then won a 3-1 run that included a Shelley Hynson kill, an Erin Walter ace and, finally, a Coolahan kill for the win.

The second set was also tied 22-all, before the Vikings won the game on pair of Mustangs miscues.

Mt. Hebron jumped out to an 8-5 lead in game three, and seemed well on their way to a win until Marriotts Ridge furiously rallied with a 16-4 run fueled by ten Mt. Hebron errors.

Mt. Hebron again took a large lead in the fourth set, jumping ahead 9-3, but the resilient Mustangs returned fire with an 8-2 flurry to tie the score at 11-all. The Vikings fought back to take a 15-14 lead, but could not finish. Marriotts Ridge junior Dana Koehler had three or her match-high six point blocks in that game alone.

Mt. Hebron jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the 15-point tiebreaker as Erin Walter hammered three kills and Coolahan recorded a kill and a block, but Marriotts Ridge's 8-1 run, paced by Laux's three kills and a block, proved to be the dagger.

"We had good passes, we just couldn't get the ball down (when we needed to)," Walter said. Against Atholton "we were a team more than we were today, everything worked together, we didn't just play for ourselves."

Moynihan praised the blocking of his two middles, Coolahan and Marissa Duncan, and was also in awe of some of the long, exciting rallies staged by the two teams on Tuesday.

"We just lost our focus and lost our intensity … it was a good day overall, just not good enough. It just sucks to be on the wrong side of a great match like this," he said. "We got knocked out of the county race a month ago so that doesn't matter … what matters is getting stronger from this for the playoffs and that's our whole focus."

Libero Julia Dixon and setter Beth Wehr contributed strong serving and defense for the Mustangs.

Reservoir 3, Atholton 0

When Atholton took a 14-3 lead at Reservoir on Tuesday, it looked like the Raiders were on their way to a 3-0 win.

But after a time out, the Gators came back a different team and took the match for themselves, 29-27, 25-18, 25-18.

"They just kept their composure and I just said to them 'Either way, it's all good, so just go out and have fun'," Reservoir coach Carole Ferrante said. "It was a very well played match on both sides."

Kelsea Belt had 14 kills and Aly Haslam had five blocks as Reservoir controlled the middle of the net, while libero Amanda Gross anchored the defense.

Around the league

Centennial 3, Hammond 0 (25-13, 25-4, 25-11)

Glenelg 3, Oakland Mills 0 (25-11, 25-18, 25-14)

River Hill 3, Howard 0 (25-15, 25-14, 25-16)

Wilde Lake at Long Reach

Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland

St. Timothy's 3, Glenelg Country 0

Bryn Mawr 3, Chapelgate Christian 1