Purcellville, Va. — After a tough 3-1 loss to Heritage High School earlier in the week, the Loudoun Valley High School volleyball team needed some momentum to swing their way. Despite a slow start to their match against Freedom High School—in which they dropped the first two sets—the Vikings rallied to take the next three sets and reverse sweep the Eagles—22-25, 17-25, 25-17, 25-16, 15-10—on September 18 in Purcellville.
“I told them, ‘Girls, it’s happened before. Teams come back. Just keep your mojo going and don’t lose your focus and you never know, right?’” Loudoun Valley head coach Carmel Keilty said. “So, I was really proud of them. That young of a team to be able to do that was pretty fun.”
Both teams traded kills during the opening stretch of the first set as Freedom senior outside hitter Kiley Robinette (18 kills, 11 digs, 1 ace) and Loudoun Valley senior middle hitter Payton Mandichak (18 kills, 9 digs, 3 aces, 3 blocks) led their teams with a few kills apiece. But the Eagles started to pull away by taking advantage of some Viking errors and getting contributions from sophomore outside hitter Irina Padden (18 digs, 14 kills, 3 aces) and sophomore middle hitter Leila Bataineh (12 kills, 1 dig, 1 block) to take the 13-7 lead.
A 6-0 Loudoun Valley run with freshman outside hitter Tenley Mandichak (12 digs, 3 aces, 1 kill, 1 dig) behind the line recording a couple aces allowed the Vikings to tie it at 13-13. However, Robinette responded with another pair of kills during a 5-1 Eagle run. Back-to-back blocks by Loudoun Valley sophomore middle hitter Izzy Hurley (11 kills, 2 blocks) sparked a 5-1 run for the Vikings, and the game was tied again at 20-20.
“Izzy’s only a sophomore, and she’s just getting better and better. She really is doing a good job,” Keilty said. “We’ve worked really hard on blocking, and I was so proud of the blocking all the way around tonight.”
Despite the late Viking effort, the Eagles closed the set on a 5-2 run featuring 2 backrow kills by Padden dished out by senior setter Sashmika Veliveli (28 assists, 6 digs) for the 25-22 victory.
After another back-and-forth start in the second set, the Eagles once again pulled away early thanks to a 5-0 run that put them up 8-3. Although the Vikings responded with a 5-1 run to bring the set within 1 at 10-9, it was all Freedom after that point. Padden rattled off 3 aces during a 9-0 run, and Robinette added a couple more kills. Junior libero Daliya Ivarone (22 digs, 2 assists, 1 ace) was on fire on defense, limiting the Vikings to just 6 kills in the set.
When it started looking as though the Eagles were going to run away with the set, Loudoun Valley made another 5-1 run late behind a couple Payton Mandichak kills to force a Freedom timeout at 23-17.
“I’m always ready, and I’m always talking to my setter, letting her know the different sets that I want to run or what I think is going to be best for this play,” Payton Mandichak said. “It really helps to have a lot of trust with my teammates because whenever I say, ‘Alright guys, let’s do this, let’s side out,’ they all come together and they’re like, ‘Alright, let’s do this.’ We all have trust in each other, so it’s really helpful to have each other’s backs and use that to side-out.”
Freedom sophomore setter Erika Franco (21 assists, 3 digs, 1 ace) relied on the heavy arms of her middles to get the final points the Eagles needed to win the second set, 25-17.
With their backs against the wall, the Vikings stepped up their defense at the net and in the backcourt during the third set. Senior libero Delaney Sheldon (26 digs, 1 assist) anchored the back row, a big block by Payton Mandichak after a long rally, and another block by junior outside hitter Olivia Cypcar (7 digs, 6 kills, 1 block) gave Loudoun Valley the early 6-2 lead.
“There was definitely a focus on blocking the middle because when we were watching film, we noticed that they had a tendency to go to the middle a lot and that she would swing hard and she would swing cross and tip. She was really smart with where she would place the ball,” Payton Mandichak said. “So that was a challenge to pick up on, but we definitely focused our energy towards blocking the middle.”
Loudoun Valley sophomore setter Mikayla Suta (32 assists, 9 digs, 1 kill) was also connecting more with her hitters, recording a set-high 11 assists in the third set. Senior right side hitter Ella Stevenson (6 kills, 1 dig) and Hurley each had 3 kills during the middle stretch where the Vikings built on their lead.
“When we look at the scheme of the whole game, the defense just really stepped it up in that third set,” Keilty said. “I told them, ‘Girls, most of the points they’re scoring are off our unforced errors, so if you can just figure it out and play your game, see the spots that are open. You don’t have to hit it a hundred miles an hour. Just play the ball in.’ So I felt like they really started to do that, and they took advantage of a couple mistakes by Freedom. The whole team played so well in the end. I’m just really proud of them.”
Although both teams had a few small runs late in the set, Loudoun Valley maintained the lead throughout and ended the set, 25-17, on a block and a kill from Payton Mandichak. The fourth set then started the same way the third ended: with a Payton Mandichak block and kill.
“Payton’s just a really good leader,” Keilty said. “It’s almost like when we need a point, Payton’s there to help us out.”
After building a 6-3 lead, Loudoun Valley senior defensive specialist Ashley Willits (4 aces, 1 dig) came off the bench to serve, and thanks to the strong service pressure that kept Freedom out of system, she helped the Vikings extend their lead by recording 2 aces on a 6-0 Vikings run.
“Ashley Willetts coming in and serving like she did was really key,” Keilty said. “So I’m just super proud of everybody. I thought they all did a really great job.”
Although the Eagles strung together their own 4-0 run with a couple kills from Padden, the closest they came was 14-11.
From there, Loudoun Valley benefitted from the offensive output of Hurley, Payton Mandichak, and Stevenson, and got yet another ace from Willetts. A Payton Mandichak kill on set-point gave the Vikings the 25-16 win to send the match to a deciding fifth set.
“I think we got used to how they were playing and then we were like, ‘Okay, it’s time to step it up and use our energy’,” Payton Mandichak said. “After the second set, whenever someone would get an ace, they would dance in the middle of the huddle, and it raised up our energy a lot. So I think that that helped everybody to get hype and focus harder.”
After four hard-fought sets and many rallies throughout, it became evident that fatigue was setting in, as errors plagued the Eagles at the start of the fifth set. Loudoun Valley took advantage of the Freedom mistakes to establish a 6-1 lead. Payton Mandichak, Hurley, and Cypcar each had kills as the Vikings extended their lead to 11-6.
“It’s always a really fun game on offense when we get a bunch of momentum and we start swinging at every single ball, and they’re all in play, and we just get rally after rally after rally,” Payton Mandichak said.
The defense on both sides of the net kept balls up as Sheldon and Tenley Mandichak matched Ivarone and Padden with digs. A late Eagles push with kills from Bataineh and Padden brought it within 2 at 12-10. But 3 straight points from Loudoun Valley—including another kill from their top contributor Payton Mandichak—gave the Vikings the 15-10 victory to complete the reverse sweep.
Freedom (1-2, 3-6) will be back in action against Potomac District opponents John Champe and Riverside on September 24 and 25. Loudoun Valley (1-1, 2-4) will look to use the momentum from this win when they host Dominion and travel to Loudoun County on the same nights.
“I hope this win propels us. We’ve got Dominion and Loudoun County next week, but I hope we can continue to play like that,” Keilty said. “Win or lose, you need your kids to have that confidence going into mid-season and end-of-season and into your tournament. So hopefully they realize they can play at that level. Anything can happen on any given night.”