Ashburn, Va. — After dropping their first district match of the season last week to top-seeded Loudoun County, the Broad Run High School volleyball team was looking to get in the win column when they hosted John Champe on September 30 in Ashburn. The Spartans used a big push to end the first set and carried that momentum all the way through the rest of the match to sweep the Knights: 25-18, 25-17, 25-22.
“Because there’s only five teams in our district, it’s very important that we’re winning these games,” Broad Run senior libero Leah Watson said. “We understand that these ones count for a little bit more, so we’re trying to be more aggressive with our overall mindset going into it.”
Broad Run had a slow start, as John Champe took control early behind a few kills from junior middle hitter Macy Farester (4 kills, 2 blocks, 1 ace). The Knights took advantage of some early Spartan errors to establish a lead through the opening half of the first set.
But a couple aces from Broad Run junior defensive specialist Sophie Reinhardt (5 aces, 5 digs) brought the Spartans back in it and forced a John Champe timeout. Broad Run used strong serving and solid defense during an 11-3 push—where Watson (14 digs, 2 aces, 1 assist) recorded a set-high 7 digs and had back-to-back aces—to bring the Spartans to set-point. A kill from senior middle hitter Sydney Bunker (7 kills, 1 ace) ended the set 25-18 and put the Spartans up 1-0.
“The strategy tonight was to serve spots and to serve aggressively to hopefully make them mess up on serve receive,” Broad Run head coach Ellen Roberts said.
Broad Run junior setter Addyson Lee (23 assists, 2 aces, 2 digs) connected with Bunker and senior outside hitter/setter Ryan Hicks (14 kills, 10 digs, 8 assists, 1 block) to open the second set, as the Spartans jumped out to a quick 10-3 lead. John Champe used a few small runs to fight back, but couldn’t seem to find openings on the other side of the court against the strong Spartan defense. Broad Run carried their early lead to the end for the 25-17 victory.
“We changed our defense late last week, so it kind of worked to our benefit,” Roberts said. “Seeing where they hit and where our defense was; it just worked out.”
Broad Run was led offensively by Hicks, who accumulated 6 kills in the third set after moving from the right pin to the left pin and being relieved of setting duties. Senior right side hitter Charly Craft also came alive for the Spartans, scoring 4 of her 6 kills in the third.
“I changed it up in the third set,” Roberts said. “One of the girls was off tonight, so we had to do something different, which thankfully I’m able to do with the options on my bench.”
Although Broad Run started the third set strong, the Knights slowly crept back in it, as senior middle hitter Kate Workman (6 kills, 1 block) connected with senior setter Mikayla Viray-Belev (10 assists, 11 digs, 1 ace), and sophomore libero Shivika Nigam (13 digs, 1 assist, 1 ace) contributed with scrappy defense. John Champe also picked up their serving game, recording 4 of their 6 aces in the third set.
“When they were serving seams, we definitely had to talk about who was getting what seams,” Watson said. “We were also trying to read the server before they served. A lot of times, especially with this team, they show where they’re serving, so we picked up on the serving tendencies so we knew where the ball was gonna land.”
With the set tied at 19-19 after a 7-1 John Champe run, the Spartans took advantage of a couple late kills and a few errors from the Knights to end the set and the match, 25-22.
“We talked about how the point before doesn’t affect the point after,” Watson said. “So every point is a fresh start to get the ball back.”
Both teams will be immediately back in action on October 1, as John Champe (2-1, 6-6) travels to Loudoun County and Broad Run (1-1, 5-9) travels to Woodgrove.
“For this week we said, ‘Okay let’s try to compete well,’ which is not going to be easy,” Roberts said. “So with this win, it helps going forward and moving into district play. We’re just now starting into [the district schedule], so we’ll see how all the teams are and go from there.”