Leesburg, Va. — Last week the Dominion High School volleyball team found themselves on the wrong end of two intense five-set matches. Despite dropping both, the Titans were able to come through when they were tested again against Heritage High School in a battle for first place in the Dulles District on October 16 in Leesburg. Although the Pride took the first and fourth sets and scored more points overall, Dominion ultimately came away with the 15-25, 25-18, 25-23, 20-25, 15-12 victory to claim sole possession of the top spot in the district heading into the final weeks of the regular season.
“This win was important for us to secure that No. 1 spot in our district because we no longer have district playoffs, so we’re now going straight into the region [tournament],” Dominion head coach Phuong Tat said. “How it’s set up is: if you’re the regular season champion for either one of the districts, we have a potential to avoid each other until the region championship. I’m confident Loudoun County is No. 1 in their district, and we’re glad to be No. 1 in our district currently. The hope is we stay that way, and hopefully, we get the region championship matchup that we want.”
Although the Titans got the win in the end, it was the Pride who started the match strong behind a kill and back-to-back blocks from junior middle hitter Shannon Treloar (8 kills, 7 digs, 6 blocks, 1 ace) on a 4-0 run to open the set. Dominion burned a timeout early, and it paid off as the Titans responded with a 3-0 run behind a kill from senior outside hitter Amaya Bowles (20 kills, 10 digs, 3 aces) and a pair of consecutive aces from junior setter Ingrid Smith (42 assists, 26 digs, 5 aces, 3 kills, 1 block).
But Heritage took advantage of some errors as the Titans were settling in and went on an 8-1 run to increase the gap to 12-4. Despite a 4-1 Dominion run, the Pride used a 4-1 run of their own to maintain the lead.
The Titans fought back with a 6-3 run behind another Smith ace and kills from Bowles and senior outside hitter Megan Hiltner (21 digs, 17 kills). But the Pride ended the set on a 5-0 run with 2 kills from junior outside hitter Jasmine McBorrough (14 digs, 13 kills, 2 blocks) and back-to-back blocks from freshman middle hitter Nicole Holokai (4 kills, 2 blocks) to take the first set, 25-15.
“We know ourselves: we’re not the tallest team and so we can’t power through everything. The Heritage blockers are really tall, and so you can try [to hit through them], but once they get that roof block, it’s like, ‘Okay, we gotta mix it up; we gotta change it around’,” Tat said. “That’s something we’ve preached since the beginning of the year, and our pins do a good job of making sure that we keep the other team out-of-system.”
Dominion made some adjustments at the beginning of the second set, moving senior middle hitter Mila Antonov (7 kills, 1 block) to the right side and emphasizing the use of off-speed shots to their outsides. The teams traded runs to start the set, as Dominion would go up and then Heritage would come back to tie it. While Hiltner led the way for the Titans with 6 kills in the set, the Pride received contributions from several different players.
After the final tie at 12-12, Dominion began to pull away as Smith found Antonov on the right side for a few kills during an 8-2 run.
“Mila has put in a lot of hard work, and she’s been versatile all season. She’s been training in that position during club volleyball, and I’ve noticed that our offense has been pretty one-dimensional, just very left-side heavy,” Tat said. “So in order to create more versatility, I thought that we needed to move her out to the right, just to give more options to our setter. I think Ingrid has great talent, and I thought we were limiting her by setting just the left side of the court, and so to utilize that and Mila’s power was important.”
Although a dump from Heritage senior setter Avery Lefman (25 assists, 20 digs, 3 aces, 2 kills) and kills from McBorrough and Holokai brought it close late at 22-18, Dominion ended the set on a 3-0 run as Smith and Bowles each recorded a kill for the 25-18 win to tie the match 1-1.
With 13 ties and 6 lead changes, the third set turned into a battle as both teams fought to gain the upper hand. Heritage got the early 8-4 edge behind a couple kills apiece from McBorrough and junior outside hitter Kaylee Mehta (15 kills, 6 digs) on a 5-1 run. Junior setter Annabelle Kim (30 digs, 11 assists, 1 kill) picked up the defense with a set-high 13 digs in the third set, and senior libero Emily Kolas (26 digs, 6 assists, 1 ace) stepped in to distribute the ball to the pins.
“Their setters took a lot of digs tonight, and we tried to force that situation,” Tat said. “If Annabelle and Avery can get a dig, and we know that we’ve eliminated the middle, hopefully the libero tries to turn them more one-dimensional.”
Dominion countered with an 8-1 run to take over the lead at 12-9 behind three Bowles kills and a kill and a block from Smith. The lead teetered again after a 4-0 run gave the Pride the one-point advantage. Mehta added two more kills, Lefman snagged an ace, and Treloar stuffed a block. But the Titans were right back in it with a 4-1 run to reclaim the lead. Smith found Bowles for two kills, recorded an ace, and then connected with Hiltner after a long rally to put the Titans up 16-14.
“Rallies are super intense. We all get exhausted. But as long as we’re making plays, it’s about the smaller things like easy passes that we’re getting up and hitting sets,” Bowles said. “I like to say things out loud like, ‘Hey, great set,’ if it’s a great set or if it’s a good dig, ‘Great dig.’ But it’s just about intensity because we need to close out the point every single time.”
A couple big blocks from the Heritage side swung the momentum the other way as the Pride used a 5-1 run to take back the lead at 19-17. But a 4-0 Dominion run featuring kills from Antonov and Hiltner and an ace from freshman defensive specialist Elly Benavides-Rivas (15 digs, 1 ace)—their fourth of the set—gave the Titans the lead they would ride to the end.
“Serving was one thing we committed to ever since dropping those tough five-setters to both Loudoun County and James Madison,” Tat said. “I thought as close as those matches were, our serving kind of softened up. And so each practice leading up to this match, we committed to being a stronger, tougher serving team, regardless of where the ball lands. I know a lot of times people like to avoid liberos, but it doesn’t matter. As long as it’s tough, it’s got heat on the ball, let’s force them to play the ball.”
Although Heritage took advantage of a few errors to tie it late at 23-23, the Pride made a couple untimely errors themselves to give Dominion the 25-23 win.
The lead went back-and-forth seven times in the first half of the fourth set as Mehta and Bowles traded kills at the onset. McBorrough scored on a couple assists from Kolas, as Kim was once again picking up the defensive load. But a few Pride miscues kept the Titans in it.
A 6-1 run featuring two Treloar blocks, a couple aces, and a couple kills gave Heritage the lead for good after the last tie at 13-13. The Pride continued to side-out behind kills from McBorrough and Mehta—who combined for 10 of the Pride’s 15 set-four kills. The set ended 25-20 on a loud kill by Treloar from Lefman—who had a team-high 8 assists—to force a deciding fifth set.
Dominion benefitted from some early Pride mistakes and a couple kills from Hiltner to start the fifth set on a 7-2 run, which forced Heritage to burn a timeout early. The Pride responded with four unanswered points to bring the set to the closest it would get at 7-6, but Hiltner came through again with a pair of consecutive kills to put the Titans up 10-6 and force Heritage to use their final timeout.
The defense from Dominion junior libero Gaby Galova (29 digs, 3 assists, 2 aces) was top notch, as what would have been Pride kills turned into digs that kept the rallies alive and gave the Titans additional opportunities. After Bowles rotated to the front row, she took over on offense, connecting with Smith for kills on Dominion’s final four points to seal the 15-12 victory.
“I typically like to focus on line, and I know it’s the one shot that I always want to nail,” Bowles said. “I was reading where the setters were, and they were setting up right behind the block, so I was thinking maybe I needed to mix it up. Sometimes I hit at them just to get the setters out so we could get the free ball and score the next point, but I focused on hitting sharp cross, line, and tools off the block.”
Both teams will continue Dulles District matches on October 21 and October 23. Heritage (3-2, 8-7) will be on the road against Loudoun Valley and Tuscarora, while Dominion (5-0, 13-8) returns home to face Tuscarora and Rock Ridge.
“To close out on top, it’s just doing the small things that start in practice, and outside of practice doing things like taking care of our bodies and hydrating,” Bowles said. “So just playing every single point like it matters, like it’s the final state championship, final region championship point, whether it’s five sets or four sets or even three sets. And just focusing on that closing mentality as well.”