Leesburg, Va. — The Potomac District championship match is not new territory for the Riverside High School volleyball team. The Rams won the district title in 2022, 2023, and 2024 and defended their reign on October 29 when they faced Potomac Falls in Leesburg. Although the Panthers put up a good fight through tough serving and long rallies, the Rams prevailed with the 25-22, 25-21, 25-19 win for their fourth straight district championship.
“It feels really great,” Riverside senior middle hitter Gabbie Vizek said. “We put in a lot of hard work this season: working hard in practice every day, grinding, and making sure every point counts every single game.”
Riverside benefitted from some early Panther errors to jump out to the 6-3 lead, but Potomac Falls senior right side hitter Jordyn Ranaudo (6 kills, 5 digs, 1 ace, 1 block) recorded an ace during a 7-0 Panther run that also featured kills from junior outside hitter Lacey Bogues (10 digs, 9 kills, 5 aces, 1 block) and senior setter Camille Ciambruschini (19 assists, 11 digs, 4 aces, 3 kills) to force a Riverside timeout at 10-6.
“We struggled a little bit on what our game plan was. We watched film on them, and we didn’t follow through with our game plan. We kind of just played reactively instead of playing the game that we put together,” Riverside head coach Reggie Cruz said. “So I said, ‘Let’s get back into that. Let’s trust the plan that we put together.’ And when I say, ‘we put together’, the big part of it was our assistant coach [Marissa Logozzo]. She was the one that came up with our defensive scheme for them. And then the girls put their input in as well so they could really buy into the whole defense.”
The Rams got back on track with a kill from senior outside hitter Nadiya Johnson (11 kills, 11 digs, 2 blocks) on a 4-0 Riverside run to tie it at 10-10. Then Riverside started to pull away thanks to kills from three different players and an ace from junior libero Camryn Coulther (25 digs, 3 assists, 1 ace) on a 7-1 run to put the Rams up 17-12.
“The depth is really helpful. If the pass is off the net, we know we can set at least two other hitters. And when we’re tight to the net, we know we can get a good middle set and our middles are usually up. So it’s good to have a whole bunch of options because the other side doesn’t really know who’s gonna hit,” Johnson said. “So it’s really beneficial to us when we’re in a rut or maybe one person isn’t performing the same as they normally would. Another person can help step up, and there’s a little bit of depth on our team that we can use. “
Quite a few rallies ensued through the middle stretch of the set as the defenses were picking up hard-driven balls as well as off-speed shots. Coulther led the way for the Rams, while Potomac Falls junior libero Ela Yilmaz (10 digs, 1 assist, 1 ace) and Bogues anchored the Panthers.
“We work a lot on coverage and getting the ball up, working a lot on hustling and grinding, going for the ball no matter where it is, always trying to get a hand on it, and trying to create something that we can get over to keep the ball moving,” Vizek said.
After a bit of back-and-forth, Potomac Falls rallied on a 6-1 run as Ciambruschini found Ranaudo and Bogues for a couple kills apiece to tie it at 21-21. But Johnson took over to close out the set, connecting with senior setter/right side hitter Sydney Ray (21 assists, 5 kills, 5 digs) for 3 kills over 5 points for the 25-22 victory.
Ciambruschini started off the second set with back-to-back aces, and sophomore outside hitter Ellie Brumback (9 digs, 4 aces, 2 kills) also contributed one on a 4-1 Panther run. Both Bogues and senior middle hitter Maya Sisman (3 kills, 1 ace, 1 dig) recorded kills and then rattled off an ace as the Panthers applied the pressure from behind the service line to build a 10-7 lead.
Kills from Johnson and Vizek (13 kills, 3 digs, 1 block) turned the tide for Riverside, as a 5-1 run gave them their first lead of the set at 12-11. Steady contributions from senior setter/right side hitter Kenzie Davis (14 assists, 6 kills, 4 digs, 1 ace) and Ray—who split time as setter and right side hitter in the 6-2 offense—allowed Riverside to maintain the lead.
“[Running a 6-2 instead of a 5-1] is a little bit difficult because the hitters have to adjust to different sets from the different setters because the contact is very different from Sydney to Kenzie. Kenzie’s really tall. Sydney’s just quick on her release,” Cruz said. “So it’s all about trying to find the same timing and getting the girls used to when they see who the setter is, understanding what the setter’s tendencies are and being able to make those adjustments quicker.”
Although the Panthers tied it at 17-17 after a pair of consecutive aces from Bogues, Johnson—who typically hits from the left side, but sometimes blocks from the right side to defend against the opponent’s outside hitter—came through with a big block to create some more distance.
“Usually I switch to be lined up with their outside hitter to relieve the setter from having to deal with blocking,” Johnson said. “The one thing about our setters is that they are able to hit outside and right side. So sometimes we switch depending on who’s [on the other side of the court]. So I think that’s very beneficial too, and that was kind of our game plan as well.”
Despite another tie at 21-21 after Ciambruschini delivered the Panthers’ eighth ace of the set, Riverside went on a 4-0 run to end the set as Davis found Vizek for back-to-back kills and then notched a kill herself for the 25-21 win.
A 9-1 Riverside run to kick off the third set made it look as though the Rams were going to run away with the match. The Rams took advantage of a handful of Panther errors and benefitted from three Vizek kills to establish the early lead.
But the Panthers were not going down without a fight as Brumback served three aces to bring them within 2 on a 6-0 run. Riverside responded with four unanswered points to widen the gap, but Ciambruschini connected with Bogues for a few kills, and the defense picked up as both sides fought to keep plays alive.
Coulther recorded a set-high 12 digs in the third, and Ciambruschini was covering all areas of the court. A few exciting rallies provided some momentum for Potomac Falls as they went on a 7-2 run highlighted by a couple kills on-two from Ciambruschini and back-to-back Bogues aces to bring the Panthers as close as they would come at 17-16.
“The first two sets we didn’t have a lot of passing errors. That last set was a little closer. We struggled a little bit in the end, but it helps a lot when you have girls who’ve been there before. And so we don’t need to raise our voices. We just talk to them and we say, ‘Are we ready for this? Are you ready for this?’ We just ask them this question and then they snap into place and they handle everything on their own at that point,” Cruz said. “So I’m very proud of the girls. They’re the ones who really hold themselves to a high standard. That’s what makes them. When they make an error, even though you hold yourself to a high standard, getting mad at yourself is not gonna help you, but focusing on what needs to get done, and that’s what they do.”
After the late Panther push, Vizek took over by recording a block after a long rally on the previous play to swing the momentum back to the Rams’ side.
“[To defend Bogues] we definitely changed up our back row a little bit, and especially where we decided to block,” Johnson said. “It was more just about moving around players on our side and always being ready for different plays and anything that she decided to run.”
Vizek then continued her dominance by connecting with both Davis and Ray for kills on half of Riverside’s last 6 points.
“It was definitely an adjustment [to go from running a 5-1 to a 6-2],” Vizek said. “At the beginning of the season, we worked a lot on setter and hitter connection on all three positions (outside, middle, and right side). We worked on running different offenses and plays, and we’re really lucky that we have two great setters that are able to move the ball around and find different ways to get points.”
After Ranaudo recorded a block following the longest rally of the night to keep the Panthers’ hopes alive at 24-19, Vizek crushed her match-high 13th kill to claim the 25-19 victory and the Rams’ fourth straight Potomac District tournament title.
“We’re definitely working on a lot of serve-receive that we’re probably going to see going into later games,” Vizek said. “We’re definitely working on covering more and running different plays as well to move around our offense and open up different things to find different ways for us to score points and adjust and be ready for anything we might see progressing.”
With the win, Riverside (12-0, 22-2) earns the top seed in the VHSL Region 5D tournament and will receive a bye into the November 6 semifinal round, where they will play the winner of the quarterfinal match between Riverbend and Briar Woods. Potomac Falls (10-2, 18-5) will face familiar foe Lightridge in a quarterfinal match on November 4.
“This year, we’re definitely going to have a target on our back for being state champs,” Johnson said. “So we have to go in each game with a really dominant mentality and play as a team and play cohesively because other teams are gonna be coming at us because we have that title on our back. So it’s a little bit different this year than being an underdog like last year, but I’m excited to keep going.”