Leesburg, Va. — The Tuscarora High School volleyball team knew they would put up a fight in the Dulles District tournament. Despite the 4-17 record heading into postseason play, the No. 4 Huskies had forced a fifth set against Dulles District No. 1 Rock Ridge, Dulles District No. 3 Heritage, and Catoctin District No. 2 Broad Run during the regular season and know they’ve been knocking at the doorstep of victory.
On October 23, they earned their chance for redemption, when they overcame a first set loss to knock off No. 5 Loudoun Valley—24-26, 25-20, 25-17, 25-19—setting up a rematch with the No. 1 Phoenix in a Dulles District semifinal.
“We’ve been a team with a lot of momentum all season. We don’t have the record that shows that, but we’ve been chipping away, going to five sets with plenty of teams, and we haven’t given up,” Tuscarora head coach Kelly Lilly said. “This is hopefully the beginning of our new journey showing everyone that we’re ready to play, and we’re not backing down.”
After jumping out to a quick lead in the opening set of their matchup with the Vikings, the Huskies struggled with some attack errors giving Loudoun Valley a 7-4 lead. Following a Tuscarora timeout, the Vikings continued to rally, forcing a second Tuscarora timeout at 18-12 Vikings.
Coming out of that timeout, Loudoun Valley extended its lead to 22-14 thanks to back-to-back aces by junior libero Kenzie Farrey.
That’s when the Huskies had seen enough.
Led by junior middle Reese Johnson, Tuscarora went on a 10-0 run to completely eliminate the Loudoun Valley lead and set up set point for the Huskies.
The Vikings, however, weathered the storm and took advantage of some Tuscarora passing errors to score four points to close out the first set 26-24.
“That momentum carried over into the second set and beyond,” Lilly said. “We’ve had games where we’ve won the first then let other teams back in. Tonight, we used that experience to keep the momentum on our side and not let Loudoun Valley back in.”
Despite dropping the set, the Huskies had grabbed control of the momentum allowing them to jump out to an early 7-2 lead in the second set.
This time, led by Johnson, junior hitter Ella Kemp and senior hitter Brooke Eichenser, the Huskies were able to fend off the Vikings to even the match up with a 25-20 win.
In the pivotal third set, the Huskies started to find some success at the service line, scoring five aces from four different servers to maintain the momentum and grab the lead in the match with a 25-17 win.
The Huskies carried their service momentum from the third set right into the fourth, as senior hitter Camden Stafford scored five aces during her opening service run as Tuscarora jumped out to a 7-0 lead.
Before you knew it, that lead had ballooned to a 22-9 lead. But the Vikings wouldn’t go down without a fight, going on a 10-2 run of their own, while defending back-to-back-to-back match points.
With a 24-19 lead, the Huskies went to the hand that got them off to such a great start in the fourth as Stafford crushed a kill to give Tuscarora the win, 25-19.
“That run to open the fourth set was good for our momentum, and we were having a good time,” Lilly said. “But if anything, we were almost having too much fun, where we let them in a little bit.”
The No. 4 Huskies—who finished with 18 aces on the night—will look to find a balance between grabbing some momentum and having too much fun when they travel to Rock Ridge on October 24 for a rematch with the No. 1 Phoenix with a chance to play in the Dulles District championship game on the line.
“Rock Ridge has some really good defensive players and their libero is awesome,” Lilly said. “It’s going to be a challenge, but if we bring our servers tomorrow and keep doing what we did tonight, we’ll definitely give them a fight.”