Sterling, Va. — After the September 26 game against Unity Reed High School later this week, the Freedom High School volleyball team will be through the first half of their district schedule and sitting right in the middle of the standings. Although their current record doesn’t reflect it, games like the September 23 meeting with Potomac Falls High School show what the Eagles are truly capable of. After fending off the Panthers in the first and second sets—25-20 and 25-21—Freedom shut the door on any hopes of a Potomac Falls comeback by securing the third-set victory 25-12 on the Panther’s home court.
“I think this type of win gives the team confidence,” Freedom head coach Jimmy Kerwin said. “We know we can do these things because we’ve done it before. So now we’ve got to do it again and replicate it and execute. It’s been brewing all year. I know it’s there, so it’s just a matter of it coming out. Tonight, we finally put the whole thing together.”
The Eagles jumped out to an early lead in the first behind the solid performances of senior outside hitter Grace Francis (18 kills, 5 digs, 3 aces), freshman outside hitter Irina Padden (11 kills, 5 digs, 1 block), and senior setter Taylor Sourinhong (18 assists, 3 digs, 1 kill, 1 block). Serving strong and taking advantage of some Panther errors allowed Freedom to take the 21-13 lead down the stretch.
“We have purpose every time we go out to serve,” Kerwin said. “It’s trying to put our opponents in a position where they’re gonna be out of system. Potomac Falls has some really good hitters on their team, so to the extent that we can neutralize them and try to serve down the corners and try to get them outside their midline a little bit where they’re not as comfortable and then trying to get the seam as much as we could. That was the strategy, and we executed it very, very well tonight.”
Although it appeared as though the first set was out of reach for Potomac Falls, the Panthers used a late run—featuring back-to-back kills and an ace from senior outside hitter Addison Edelin (5 kills, 7 digs, 1 ace, 1 block)—to narrow the gap to 23-20. But a service error and a Francis ace sealed the first set win for the Eagles, 25-20.
“For the past couple matches I’ve had a little bit of a nervous feeling going into it,” Francis said. “I had a really long talk with my mom on Saturday and she told me, ‘You got this!’ And I just kept reminding myself of that every time I messed up, and my mom’s voice got me through it. It was all in my mindset.”
The teams traded points back and forth to open the second set, but the Eagles used a 6-0 run—behind a couple Padden kills, two big blocks, and a pair of aces from senior right side hitter Makena Williams—to take the 8-3 lead and force a Panther timeout.
“The big thing that we focused on tonight was serve-receive, especially coming off a weekend,” Kerwin said. “We did a lot in warmups, and that was the goal tonight: win the serve-receive battle. And I thought we did, and it put us in a good position to allow us to get the ball out to our hitters, and they did their job tonight.”
Potomac Falls wasn’t going away, though, as they slowly clawed their way back into the set, forced a few Freedom errors, and used a couple loud points from senior middle hitter Brianna Thompson (3 kills, 2 blocks) and junior setter Camille Ciambruschini (13 assists, 8 digs) to tie the set at 16-16.
Similar to the start of the set, the teams battled back and forth until the Eagles took a slight edge at 23-20, which caused Potomac Falls head coach Holly Dobrynski to call a timeout. Although the Panthers responded immediately with a big block out of the timeout, a Panther error and a kill from Padden ended the second set 25-21.
Unlike the first two, the third set was all Freedom, as the Eagles established an early lead and never looked back. Led by the defensive effort of senior libero Isabel Morales (14 digs, 3 assists, 2 aces)—who picked up half of her digs in the third set—and sophomore setter Kami Hendrix (12 assists, 7 digs)—who came alive to run the offense in the third—Freedom was looking to make it an early night. The only offensive answer Potomac Falls could provide was sophomore outside hitter Lacey Bogues, who scored 3 of her 6 kills in the third set.
But the real powerhouse of the third set—and of the match as a whole—was Francis, who tallied a set-high 9 kills in the third to add to her match-high 18 kills. Francis had the hot hand in the final stretch of the match, scoring 6 of the final 9 points for the Eagles en route to their 25-12 victory.
“With both of my setters, as soon as the ball gets passed and I know I’m transitioning to hit, I make eye contact with them and I’m barking at them to get me that ball,” Francis said. “I’m trying to tell them I’m ready, so they’re confident enough to set me. And giving a setter that type of confidence will really let them nail that set when they need to nail it.”
“I’ve known Grace since she was probably about five years old,” Kerwin said. “We’ve lived on the same street, and just seeing her blossom into what she is today, it’s incredible. She does more with her 5’6” frame than most players could ever dream of. She’s got a heart that cannot be matched, and when she’s on, she’s on and gives it everything. She was phenomenal tonight, and I’m super proud of her effort.”
After picking up their first in-season district win under Dobrynski with a sweep over Independence on September 19, the Panthers (1-0, 4-5) will look to get back in the win column when they travel to Riverside on September 24 and to Briar Woods on September 26. Freedom (2-3, 6-5) will return to district play when they host Unity Reed in the aforementioned September 26 matchup.
“I definitely think that we can have a very high ranking within our district, but we’ve been lacking a little bit lately,” Francis said. “So I think we gotta let that fuel the fire, and I’m so ready to get back out there and play those district games, because those are the really competitive ones. Those are the ones that I lie awake thinking about. Those are the ones that I need to play in.”