Purcellville, Va. — After winning their season opener in a five-set marathon against Independence, the Lightridge High School volleyball team was prepared to go the distance again when they traveled to Purcellville to face Woodgrove High School on September 2. Although the Wolverines eked out wins by extra points in the first and fourth sets, the Lightning controlled the second and third sets and pulled away in the fifth to secure the 24-26, 25-13, 25-15, 24-26, 15-10 victory.
“This win feels really good because the past two years we lost to Woodgrove,” Lightridge senior setter Faith Ramirez said. “So it was great to pull off a comeback in an intense five sets.”
The Wolverines jumped out to the early 6-1 lead behind the play of senior middle hitter Coco Mercker (11 kills, 7 aces, 1 block), who opened the match with a kill, a block, and a couple aces. However, Lightridge took advantage of several Woodgrove errors to remain close. A 7-0 Lightning run with senior outside hitter Jaylen Burgess (12 digs, 7 kills, 4 aces, 1 assist) behind the service line recording a couple aces midway through the set enabled Lightridge to take the 16-12 lead.
However, the Wolverines fought back with small runs until a statement kill by Mercker after a long rally shifted the momentum back to the home team. Although Lightridge had the first opportunity at set point after a pair of kills from senior middle hitter Amara Pope (10 kills, 5 blocks, 4 aces, 1 dig), Woodgrove ended the set in a way reminiscent of how it started: with three consecutive aces from Mercker.
“[After the first set] we needed to get back to the fundamentals and just play our game,” Lightridge head coach Raven Jordan said. “We focused on adjusting to what they were doing.”
Despite the first-set loss, the Lightning jumped out to an early lead in the second that they would maintain throughout the set. The defense—anchored by junior libero Kaya Obando (15 digs, 2 kills, 2 assists, 1 ace) and sophomore defensive specialist Sofia Gelston (13 digs, 2 aces)—stepped up their game to extend rallies and give the hitters more opportunities, which the team capitalized on.
“The biggest thing I think we shifted [between set one and set two]was being more in system. Our passing picked up a lot,” Jordan said. “Shout out to Sofia Gelston, Kaya Obando, and Jaylen Burgess. Serve receive helped us side-out a lot faster and allowed us to run our offense a little more.”
Highlighted by the steady attack of sophomore middle hitter Giuliana Mastrangelo (16 kills, 3 blocks, 1 dig), senior outside hitter Annika Cortez (8 digs, 5 kills, 2 aces), and Burgess and the aggressive net play of Ramirez (26 assists, 8 digs, 4 kills, 2 aces)—who called her own number on setter dumps a few times to extend the lead—the Lightning outscored the Wolverines in every category with a set-high 15 kills and 16 digs in the second set for the 25-13 win.
“I like to set whoever is the most aggressive because I know they’ll score points,” Ramirez said. “I like the hunger from people, knowing that they want the ball. I won’t set people who want to just get it over the net. I want people who will score.”
Set three started as a back-and-forth battle with six lead changes and ties at every point from 1 to 7. After a final tie at 10-10, Lightridge started to pull away thanks to a 6-1 run featuring a couple kills and a block by Pope.
Woodgrove called a timeout to regroup and sided-out on a much-needed kill from senior right side hitter Audrey Hendrickson (5 kills, 1 dig, 1 block). But following another kill, Pope went to the service line to rattle off five straight—including two aces—to put the game even further out of reach.
“Our serving really helped,” Jordan said. “Amara Pope went on a run in the third set, so we had that huge gap and kept them out of system to where they were only sending free balls and we were able to run our offense.”
Despite the defensive effort from Woodgrove junior libero Kristen Burns (12 digs, 2 assists, 2 aces) and junior outside hitter Amelia Zinn (14 digs, 4 aces, 3 kills, 1 block), the Wolverines were not able to put balls away and were limited to just 5 kills. Blocks from Pope and Mastrangelo made scoring points even more challenging, and the Lightning cruised to a 25-15 win with kills from Burgess and Mastrangelo to end the third set.
“[Pope and Mastrangelo] are my energizer bunnies on the team. Every time they get a good kill, the bench cheers for them and we get some more momentum from that,” Jordan said. “They were smart with their shots as well and led the troops in that on our side.”
Woodgrove cleaned things up in the fourth, minimizing errors and playing tighter defense. Each team went on small runs with Woodgrove establishing a lead behind three consecutive Zinn aces. However, Lightridge crept back in it as Ramirez found all her hitters for kills to take the 11-9 advantage.
The lead teetered through the middle stretch with ties at every point from 11 to 15. It was a battle in the middle as Mercker—who had a set-high 6 kills—and Mastrangelo—who had a team-high 5 kills—traded points. Momentum shifted the way of the Wolverines after a kill from senior setter Morgan Sher (17 assists, 3 digs, 1 kill, 1 ace) and an ace from Mercker brought the score to 22-18.
But the Lightning weren’t giving up, eventually tying it again at 24-24 behind a kill and a block from Mastrangelo to force extra points. But an ace from Woodgrove junior setter Hailey Howard (8 assists, 7 digs, 3 aces) sealed the 24-26 win and forced the deciding fifth set.
“Shout out to them. Coco was very in-system in leading the troops,” Jordan said. “But I think we just needed to get them out of their flow and go back to what we were doing in the second and third sets: getting them out of system, forcing the setter to play the first ball, those kinds of things.”
Neither team was willing to let the match slip away, as they both fought for the upper hand right out of the gate. Ramirez found four different hitters for kills to gain the edge and force a Woodgrove timeout at 7-4.
“Our mindset in the fifth set was: first to five, first to ten, first to fifteen,” Ramirez said. “We were kind of behind in the beginning, but our team was able to push back, get through serve receive, side out, and get those kills and run more plays.”
The Wolverines responded with a couple kills and a couple aces on a 6-2 run for their first lead since the opening points. But it was all Lightridge after that. The Lightning took advantage of a negative Wolverine hitting percentage in the fifth set and capitalized on the strong net play of Mastrangelo for the 15-10 victory.
“[For future matches] we definitely need to focus on our serve receive,” Ramirez said. “We struggle a lot in that sometimes, but I think once we get a good pass, we can run a great offense.”
With no rest before their next matches, Woodgrove (0-0, 0-2) will look to bounce back immediately when they host South Lakes on September 3 and John Champe on September 4. Lightridge (0-0, 3-0) will be put to the test again when they host Loudoun County on September 4.
“When we have it, we just need to finish all the way to the end and not get comfortable,” Jordan said. “We’re trying to find our identity a little bit. We’re still young. We do have a lot of seniors, but we’re only five years old as a program. So when we have the lead, we just need to keep going because I think we’re going to surprise some people.”