Sterling, Va. — The Potomac Falls High School volleyball program has been rebuilding for the past few years under the leadership of head coach Holly Dobrynski. Despite going 2-20 in 2023, the Panthers made it to a VHSL Region 5D semifinal in 2024 with a 11-12 record and continued to improve this year by securing the No. 2 seed in the Potomac District tournament with a 16-4 record.
After sweeping Stone Bridge on October 27 in a district quarterfinal, Potomac Falls met with No. 3 seed Lightridge on October 28 in Sterling for a district semifinal match. Although the Lightning came out strong to start, the Panthers took over in the middle of the first set and never looked back en route to a 25-19, 25-13, 25-18 victory that earned them a spot in the district championship match.
“Just getting to the district championship means a lot. I don’t think we’ve been here in 10 years, so we’ve been battling. And they’ve earned this, they really have,” Dobrynski said. “We’ve really worked on turning this program around, and it wasn’t just me. It’s many families coming together and knowing that they wanted to leave this program better than they found it and knowing that they wanted to leave a legacy of: ‘we built this Panther volleyball program up, we are not something to be overlooked, we’re important, and we matter to the school and to the community,’ and it just means a lot.”
In order to get the win, Potomac Falls had to overcome a slow start in which the Lightning took advantage of some early Panther errors to build a solid 9-4 lead. Lightridge senior outside hitter Annika Cortez (6 kills, 6 digs, 1 ace, 1 block) led the way with 4 kills and 4 digs in the first set, while sophomore libero Sofia Gelston (8 digs, 1 assist) pitched in on defense with half of her team-high 8 digs. Junior setter Jessica Nolte (12 assists, 1 dig, 1 ace) and sophomore setter Olivia Nilsen (7 assists, 1 dig) found all six hitters for contributions throughout the set.
But the tides began to turn when an 8-2 Potomac Falls run allowed the Panthers to take over the lead at 17-14 as senior setter Camille Ciambruschini (29 assists, 4 aces, 3 digs, 2 kills) connected with senior right side hitter Jordyn Ranaudo (9 kills, 3 digs, 1 ace) for 3 kills and junior libero Ela Yilmaz (11 digs, 4 aces, 1 assist) picked up the defense with a set-high 5 digs.
“We really focus on defense in the back row. My outsides are really strong defensively. They’re great passers, but the libero runs the back court, so I want her to take that first pass so they can transition to hit,” Dobrynski said. “Because we’re not big blockers, we have focused a lot on defense in the back row, covering the tips. I tell our libero to get up to the 10-foot line, toes on the line, and just get down and cover it, platform out.”
Despite a late Lightning push that tied the set at 19-19, it was all Potomac Falls after that. Ciambruschini found sophomore outside hitter Ellie Brumback (11 kills, 8 digs, 3 aces) for 3 kills during a 6-0 run to close out the first set, 25-19.
“We’ve always had a little bit of difficulty in the beginning of the set, getting our momentum, but they just get nervous when they see playoffs,” Dobrynski said. ”We’re always a little nervous when we play Lightridge, but I brought them in and said, ‘This is the same stuff we see all the time. We’ve played them twice before. We’ve beaten them twice before. This is nothing new. Let’s just go for it.’ And they rallied and clawed their way back up. I’m proud of them for being able to do that this year. We’ve struggled with that in the past, so this year I think mentally we’re just a little bit tougher.”
The Panthers continued to control the match by starting the second set on a 7-1 run during which Ciambruschini recorded back-to-back aces which led to an early Lightridge timeout. Yilmaz then went to the service line and recorded 2 aces on a 4-0 run to increase the Panther lead to 11-2.
“We talked a lot about aggressive serving and swinging, if possible, because they have a big block and their middles are some of their strongest hitters,” Ciambruschini said. “So if we could serve strong and get them off the net, we knew that we could limit their kills. I think really strong and focused serving and not making many errors with that was our successful point.”
Lightridge senior outside hitter Jaylen Burgess (5 kills, 4 digs, 1 ace) responded with 2 kills, but a few Lightning errors—which contributed to a negative team hitting percentage in the second set—created even more distance between the teams.
Brumback and Cortez went back-and-forth with a couple kills apiece during the middle stretch, but a 6-1 Panther run where Ciambruschini connected with junior outside hitter Lacey Bogues (10 kills, 7 digs, 3 aces) for 2 of her set-high 5 kills put the game out of reach at 23-9. Although Lightridge benefitted from a few late Panther errors, a final Bogues kill ended the set at 25-13.
“It’s really just a matter of realizing that every hitter is different and figuring out how I can give them an opportunity when I’m off the net, because that’s most of the time in volleyball,” Ciambruschini said. “We acknowledge that it’s not only on the setter, it’s also on the hitters, so we work on finding a middle ground that can help define success. I think it’s definitely taken a lot of practice, but we have a lot of time and experience with that, so I think that has helped.”
Strong service pressure from Potomac Falls continued into the third set and kept Lightridge off-balance and out-of-system. The Panthers established a 9-3 lead as Ciambruschini, Brumback, and Yilmaz all recorded aces which forced an early Lightning timeout.
“Getting them out-of-system was actually the focus going into this match because teams like Lightridge and Riverside both run their offense through the middle, and I told the girls, ‘I know we get nervous with serve, but we’ve got to serve aggressively. We need to keep them out-of-system’,” Dobrynski said. ”So I told my blockers to watch the first pass. If that first pass is off, you can cheat away from the middle because it’s not going there. So I think we did a really good job of keeping it away from their middles. They did not get many kills off the middle, so I’m definitely proud of the girls for listening and serving aggressively. They just put it all out there, and it was amazing.”
At the start of the third set, Lightridge moved sophomore middle hitter Giuliana Mastrangelo (4 digs, 3 blocks, 2 kills, 1 ace) from the middle to the right side in hopes of getting more production out of her. This proved fruitful on a 6-1 Lightning run in which Mastrangelo contributed a kill and an ace.
Lightridge senior middle hitter Amara Pope (4 kills, 2 digs, 1 ace, 1 block, 1 assist) also came alive with a kill, a block, and an ace to bring the Lightning as close as they would come at 10-9. The presence of the Lightridge block was felt more during the third set as four different players—led by Mastrangelo and senior right side hitter Emerson Barbrow (3 blocks, 2 kills)—recorded blocks.
But four unanswered points—including a kill and an ace from Bogues—further widened the gap. A couple plays later, on Brumback’s match-high 11th kill, Ciambruschini surpassed the Potomac Falls single-season assist record with her 749th assist of the season.
“This is my fourth year coaching Camille. She’s been on varsity for three years. Her first year with that team was a little rough; we were 2-20 on the season, so not many assists there. She’s really had to buckle down. We had a great team rallying around her last year, but this year we’ve really got hitters that can execute, and it was a team effort to get her to that assist record,” Dobrynski said. “It’s a lot of assists in one season, and it’s a record that has stood since 2011, so it’s a really big deal. And you can see that she busts her butt out there. She puts it all out there, not for herself, but for the whole team.”
“I feel really good, but also rewarded that I have the hitters that are able to do it. I’m really proud of them because I think it’s insane how far they’ve come since my sophomore year when we started,” Ciambruschini said. “I just try to focus on one set at a time. I used to look at it as a really big picture, and I think now it’s really important for me to just take it one step at a time and lean on my teammates for support. And I think talking through any errors has helped me find success with them.”
The Panthers continued to keep the Lightning out-of-system on the serve, as a pair of consecutive aces from senior middle hitter Maya Sisman (4 aces, 2 digs) forced Lightridge to use their final timeout at 18-12.
Although Nilsen connected with a couple hitters during a late Lightning rally, Ranaudo came through with a couple more kills dished out by Ciambruschini, and the set ended 25-18 on a statement kill from Bogues to give the Panthers the win and a berth to the championship match the next day.
“My team that was on the court tonight could take Riverside. They just have to mentally know that they can do it. It’s been a lot of years of Riverside, Riverside, Riverside, so it’s about getting them out of their own heads to know that it’s an accomplishment just to make it to the district championship and go out there and have fun,” Dobrynski said. “We haven’t been here, and we’re still going to the region tournament [regardless of the district championship result]. We’re full steam ahead, and we’re wanting that state bid. So we’ll be focusing on taking away that middle offense because they kill us there.”
Despite the loss, Lightridge (8-4, 16-6) will advance to the VHSL Region 5D tournament and will play in a region quarterfinal match on November 4 at a site and opponent to be determined. With the win, Potomac Falls (10-2, 18-4) will travel to Riverside on October 29 to vie for the Potomac District tournament title before also competing in the VHSL Region 5D tournament.
“Riverside is definitely a threat and they’re really talented, but I think the same mentality of ‘no fear’ that we had tonight is what we need to have tomorrow,” Ciambruschini said. “They’re a great team, and they have big hitters, but I think they do have weaknesses that if we can find them, we can accomplish big things against them. But it’s gonna be a battle for sure.”