Ashburn, Va. — The Potomac Falls High School volleyball team had not dropped a set since their first match of the 2025 season in a 3-0 loss to Loudoun County High School on August 25. Although the Panthers lost the second set of the match against Briar Woods High School on September 16 in Ashburn, they ultimately came away with the 25-18, 20-25, 25-21, 25-16 victory and kept their seven-game win streak alive.
“This is a big win,” Potomac Falls head coach Holly Dobrynski said. “We were fourth in the district last year and went to regionals. I think this just proves to us that we’re here to play, and we’re gonna go even further this year. We’re somebody that you should really not discount this year in the district.”
Right off the bat, the Panthers established a strong presence as senior setter Camille Ciambruschini (34 assists, 12 digs, 8 kills, 3 aces) recorded an ace and a couple setter dumps to gain the 7-3 edge. Ciambruschini also connected with junior outside hitter Lacey Bogues (15 kills, 13 digs, 3 aces, 1 block, 1 assist) for 3 kills to extend the lead to 14-10.
“Camille is a threat, and she’s the smartest, probably most aggressive, confident player that we have, which is definitely an asset. I think some of us struggle with confidence, and she’s able to bring that,” Dobrynski said. “And again, just the hustle: she knows where to get the ball, she knows what hitters are up, what blockers are up, she’s watching the other side of the court even while she’s setting. I haven’t seen something like that in quite a while, so that’s a huge asset, obviously.”
Although the Falcons responded with a kill by sophomore outside hitter Allie Bowen (10 kills, 10 digs, 2 aces), a big Bogues block after a long rally and another kill from Ciambruschini forced Briar Woods to burn their second timeout at 17-13.
The Falcons strung together a few points behind a kill and an ace from Bowen to bring the game to its closest margin late at 18-16. But Ciambruschini found sophomore outside hitter Ellie Brumback (18 digs, 8 kills, 3 assists, 1 ace) for 3 kills over 4 points to put the game out of reach for Briar Woods. The Panthers ended the first set on a 7-2 run to claim the 25-18 victory.
“To prepare for today, we practiced really hard. We watched film, and then we practiced things that we saw they were doing, like deep hits—their middles can hit really well—and their serves—they have really good serves,” Bogues said. “We reflected on our games against them last year and realized they like to serve short, so we worked on serve receive for short serves.”
Although the second set opened with a few ties and lead changes, Potomac Falls once again jumped out to the early lead after a 6-0 run forced Briar Woods to burn a timeout at 8-3. The Falcons took advantage of a few Panther errors, and freshman setter Kayla Chang (28 assists, 16 digs, 2 aces, 1 kill, 1 block) assisted on kills to senior outside hitter Katie Bowen (9 kills, 6 digs) and her younger sister Allie to tie it again at 12-12 and 13-13.
A 5-0 run with freshman defensive specialist Allison Tan (3 aces, 2 digs) behind the service line gave the Falcons their first lead since the opening points. Despite the efforts of the Panthers—led by the double-double performances of Bogues and Ciambruschini—they were only able to bring the score within one point at 19-18 and again at 20-19. From there, Briar Woods used a 5-1 run to close out the set with two statement blocks for the 25-20 win.
With the match tied 1-1, neither team was giving up the edge, as they fought tooth and nail through the first half of the third set. The teams traded points and runs during a stretch that featured eight ties and five lead changes, with neither team leading by more than 2 points.
“After dropping the second set, we honestly just needed to bring our energy up. I think in the first set we had energy, but it kind of just depleted as the game went on, especially in the second set,” Bogues said. “We kind of just assumed that, ‘Oh, we’re just gonna sweep through the second set; they’re not gonna come back harder.’ But they did, so we had to be mentally strong for the third and fourth sets.”
The defense was working hard on both sides of the net to extend rallies and give the offense more opportunities. Potomac Falls junior libero Ela Yilmaz (28 digs, 3 assists, 2 aces) had a set-high 8 digs in the third to add to her match-high 28 digs.
“Coming in, we were expecting a good Briar Woods team since they were really good last year. And in moments like the second set, when we were down, we were still helping each other out and trying to be good teammates by talking,” Yilmaz said. “I try to be the captain of the back row and lead others when I’m passing. I try to help out by taking up as much of the court as I can. And since they beat us last year, we wanted to win so badly.”
Following the final tie at 15-15, Potomac Falls took the largest lead of the set at 18-15 behind a big kill from senior right side hitter Jordan Ranaudo (10 digs, 7 kills, 1 ace, 1 assist)—who came alive with 4 kills in the third set—and Briar Woods called a timeout to reset.
A loud block by freshman right side hitter Marisa Barreto (2 kills, 2 aces, 1 block) after a long rally, followed by back-to-back Barreto aces, gave the Falcons late hope and brought them within one at 20-19. But errors came at the wrong time for Briar Woods and allowed Potomac Falls to take the set 25-21.
“We’ve been working really hard with defense this year, scouting other teams. We’ve noticed that they are what we call ‘bum rushing’ the front of the court, and I really make sure that the middle back stays deep just so that she can cover those deep corners so that we’re not caught off guard,” Dobrynski said. “But we focus a lot on defense because we’re a shorter team and we might get blocked, so we just make sure we’re covering the block and covering the tips and really trying to be everywhere all at once.”
The Panthers used the momentum built in the third set and carried it over into the fourth, taking advantage of Briar Woods errors after long rallies and benefitting from consecutive aces from Yilmaz to take the 8-3 lead.
“When I’m serving, I try to go for seams because I know their libero is really strong in serve receive,” Yilmaz said. “So I was targeting their outsides to get them out of system, and I think it worked.”
A kill from Briar Woods senior middle hitter Michelle Herbert (7 kills, 5 digs) and an ace from Allie Bowen brought the Falcons to their closest margin of the set at 9-7. But back-to-back blocks by Potomac Falls senior middle hitter Maya Sisman (5 kills, 3 blocks, 1 dig) and a few more Panther kills widened the gap to 15-9.
Briar Woods was not giving up, though, as senior libero Molly Gardner (19 digs, 4 assists) picked up the defense with a set-high 8 digs to contribute to her team-high 19 digs. Herbert also recorded 3 more kills, as the Falcons had a team-high 10 kills in the fourth set.
But the early Panther lead, in addition to contributions from all seven starters—who played every point of the match—allowed Potomac Falls to string together a few runs and close out the set and the match, 25-16.
“They’re the seven that work the best together. They know where everybody is at all times. I know that they can execute,” Dobrynski said. “If one of them gets down, I can count on the rest of them to get her back up, and they’re really good at bouncing back from mistakes. So even if we get down, like we did in that second set, they’re really good at bringing it back up and coming back.”
Briar Woods (0-2, 6-3) will look to get back in the win column when they host John Champe on September 18. Potomac Falls (3-0, 7-1) will look to keep their win streak alive in a battle for first place in the Potomac District at Riverside on the same night.
“My hopes and goals are for us to try to win all our games, and if not, to try to beat Riverside because they were state champs last year,” Bogues said. “We also want to get to regionals again, because last year we got to the region semifinals, and then we lost again to Riverside. So we want to get to the region final, maybe get to states if we can, and win a few more district games.”