Ashburn, Va. — Both the Heritage High School and Broad Run High School volleyball teams were looking for a big win entering their September 29 contest in Ashburn. While both teams fought hard to push the first set to extra points, Heritage ultimately came away with the win. The Pride then used that momentum to shut down the Spartans, earning a 28-26, 25-16, 25-10 sweep.
“This win feels good and definitely feels rewarding. Having to fight, especially with the first set being super close, I feel like we worked super hard for it,” Heritage senior setter Avery Lefman said. “Teamwork was really good, chemistry was really good. I feel really good about how everyone played and the chemistry. It was super fun.”
An exciting first set featured lots of rallies and tons of defense from both sides of the court. Broad Run senior libero Addyson Lee (12 digs) recorded a set-high 8 digs, while Broad Run senior outside hitter Sophie Reinhardt (8 kills, 7 digs) and Heritage senior libero Emily Kolas (11 digs, 3 aces, 1 assist) each contributed 7.
Lefman (18 assists, 8 digs, 2 aces, 1 kill) started the match with back-to-back aces, but an ace from Broad Run senior setter Leila Zebdi (5 assists, 1 ace) and a couple kills from Reinhardt after a few long rallies tied it at 3-3.
Heritage then went on a 5-0 run as Lefman found senior right side hitter Ally Puzenski (6 kills, 1 dig) for a couple kills, and junior middle hitter Shannon Treloar (7 blocks, 3 kills, 3 aces) stuffed a block. But Broad Run senior right side hitter Denaria Jenkins (3 kills, 2 blocks, 1 dig) responded with a kill and a block of her own to keep it close.
Down 9-5, Broad Run freshman setter Yuki Vadlamudi (17 assists, 5 aces, 1 dig) came off the bench to rattle off 5 aces over 6 points on an 8-0 Spartan run, as Broad Run took the lead for the first time all night and forced the Pride to burn a timeout.
Heritage came back and countered with a 4-0 run with senior outside hitter Mikayla Zakrzewski (5 kills, 4 digs, 2 aces) behind the line recording an ace and Treloar adding another block to tie the set for a fourth time at 13-13.
“We work a lot on blocking because we have that height advantage in the front row,” Heritage head coach Quintin Coates said. “Height alone does a lot, and in our front row we have a minimum of like 5’9”- 5’10”, so there’s a lot of movement up there, especially just from being big and being a big presence.”
Vadlamudi connected with senior middle hitter Helena Pakiela (9 kills, 1 ace) for a pair of consecutive kills, and Reinhardt also notched another one as Broad Run reclaimed the 17-14 lead. But Heritage crept back in with a couple overpass kills, and Lefman found Puzenski for another one of her 5 first-set kills to tie the game again at 19-19.
“I’ve been working on myself and my consistency,” Lefman said. “I’ve been working on my touches on the ball, my placement of the ball, and the tempo of the set so that everyone gets the same set, more or less. I’ve also been working on running a faster offense and making sure I communicate with my hitters before I make a change or if I want to do something different, just to build that chemistry.”
A Lefman setter dump after a long rally gave the Pride the 21-19 advantage, but the Spartans would go on to tie the set at every point from 21 to 26 as the teams went back and forth to the finish. Heritage needed four set-points to get the job done, but Puzenski came through again, and Kolas ended it with an ace, 28-26.
The second set turned into a Heritage block party, as the Pride recorded half of their blocks in the second and out-blocked the Spartans 13-4 on the match. Although Broad Run jumped out to the early lead as Zebdi found sophomore outside hitter Caitlin Sallee (5 kills, 1 dig) for back-to-back kills, Treloar and junior outside hitter Jasmine McBorrough (9 kills, 7 digs, 1 block, 1 ace) recorded blocks to tie it at 5-5.
“What we lack in offense per se, we pick up on defense with our block. Our passing was a little shaky today, so our block picked up that extra defensive load of being able to read the hitters,” Coates said. “It’s also nice to have middles who can adjust to the setter on the other side of the court and not just stick to the middle of the court. They can cheat one way or the other and almost assume which hitter instead of just being there and waiting for the set to get up, so that helps a lot too.”
The Pride then took advantage of a couple Broad Run errors and a McBorrough ace to build a slight lead at 8-5. Pakiela responded with a couple kills and an ace of her own to bring the Spartans as close as they would come at 9-8. But Heritage put the game out of reach with a 12-2 run, benefiting from 3 Zakrzewski kills over 4 points, blocks from senior middle hitter Alyssa Stanford (3 blocks, 1 kill, 1 dig, 1 assist) and junior outside hitter Kaylee Mehta (4 kills, 2 blocks, 1 dig), and a pair of consecutive aces from Kolas.
“In practice, we’ve definitely been working on serve receive, but on top of that we’ve been working on aggressive serves,” Lefman said. “Every drill, we don’t do free ball serves or high serves; we consistently work on aggressive serves, flat serves, and we make sure that that’s consistent going out to every game. Especially if we start with the serve, we want to start off with something strong, with aces. I feel confident in that, and I feel like everyone’s got something to give.”
Although the Spartans fought to stay in it with a couple late kills from Pakiela, the Pride held on for the 25-16 victory.
“I think the difference [between the first set and the other two]was the amount of errors that we made, and reframing what we wanted out of the game, which obviously was a W,” Coates said. “So we focused on cleaning up the errors and running an effective offense, instead of just throwing the ball up and hoping that somebody hits it. So really turning up the effectiveness of our offense.”
Heritage carried over the momentum from the second set to the third, as several players recorded kills to open the frame.
“Being able to run two six-rotation outsides really helps us a lot because we can run that systematic 6-2 and have two functional right sides coming in and actually producing as right sides, not just holding a spot,” Coates said. “So everybody can be ‘on’ instead of just one or two people at a time. We have six full-on hitters that can score points when they need to. It’s an even attack all the way through, so the other side has to worry about everybody at the net instead of just one particular player. Running that effective offense and being able to feed everybody the ball and not just one or two people is huge.”
Despite a couple kills apiece from Jenkins and Reinhardt, 10-6 was the closest Broad Run would come in the third set. After that, Treloar put away a kill from junior setter Annabelle Kim (7 assists, 6 digs, 1 kill, 1 ace) then went to the service line to rattle off all 3 of her aces on an 8-0 Heritage run.
Broad Run recorded a couple blocks and benefited from a few Heritage miscues, but Lefman connected with McBorrough on 3 kills over 4 points, and the Pride fittingly ended the match on a block from Mehta for the 25-10 win.
“I think we need to continue having an effective serve/pass game, getting an aggressive ball in to start, and also passing a good ball to where our setters can set at least two hitters instead of just giving the ball to one player all the time—that way their defense isn’t just locked in on our outside 24/7,” Coates said. “So we’re working towards being that effective serve/pass team, but also being that blocking team and forcing their hitters to adjust to get around our block, so our defense can be a little more fluid in where we’re setting up.”
Both teams will be back in action on September 30, as Heritage (2-1, 5-5) travels to Stone Bridge and Broad Run (0-0, 4-7) travels to Loudoun Valley.
“We’re hoping for wins, obviously, but what I’m hoping for is just consistency,” Lefman said. “Even if we lose, I hope we have a good loss, meaning that we played well and we fought hard. But I’m hoping to win and win aggressively.”