Leesburg, Va. — The Heritage High School girls volleyball team has been waiting for their moment for the last couple years. The team includes a group of four core seniors who have been playing together for the past three seasons, and despite injuries and setbacks during that span, they have not given up hope that it could still be their time. A non-league game on September 22 against perennial powerhouse Riverside High School—who has gone to the VHSL Class 5 state championship game the past three seasons—was the Pride’s chance to prove they have what it takes.
After commanding the majority of the first set, Heritage fell behind in both the second and the third sets. The Pride relied on their senior leadership and mental fortitude to push through and complete the 25-21, 25-23, 25-22 sweep in Leesburg.
“Our focus was on the mental game. Our skill is what our skill is going to be. We practice and practice and practice skill, but the mental part of the game has been our biggest struggle over the past years,” Heritage head coach Quintin Coates said. “With the seniors that we have on the court, and the consistent senior presence and leadership, it helps drive that mental toughness: harder, better, and more consistent. We have people on the court that consistently have that mindset, and they’re not coming on and off.”
Although the Rams got things started early with a couple aces from senior setter Mollie Bowers (18 assists, 5 digs, 3 aces, 1 kill) and a couple kills apiece from junior middle hitter Ava Ibiezugbe (12 kills, 2 blocks) and sophomore outside hitter Marina Ibrahim (9 digs, 6 kills, 1 assist), Heritage quickly found their rhythm as senior setter Annabelle Kim (34 assists, 7 digs, 2 aces) found senior outside hitter Kaylee Mehta (12 kills, 6 digs) for back-to-back kills to take the lead.
From there, the Pride was in complete control, as Mehta went on a 5-point service run to give Heritage the 16-10 advantage and force a Riverside timeout. Although Bowers connected with Ibrahim to side-out on the next play, a 5-2 Heritage run featuring a couple kills from senior middle hitter Shannon Treloar (5 kills, 5 blocks, 1 ace, 1 dig) gave the Pride their largest lead of the night at 21-13.
But the Rams weren’t going away that easily. A block and a kill from senior outside hitter Kennedy Peyton (13 digs, 4 kills, 1 block), followed by a pair of consecutive aces from sophomore middle hitter Sydney Lewis (5 kills, 3 digs, 3 aces, 2 blocks) brought Riverside within two at 22-20.
But it wasn’t enough, as Heritage took advantage of a couple untimely Rams errors, and Kim found sophomore middle hitter Nicole Holokai (5 kills, 3 blocks) to end the set, 25-21.
“Our offense was finally clicking in the way it’s supposed to tempo-wise. We were running fast sets to the outside, we were running quick tempos to the middle, we weren’t doing a lot of mixed-up plays, which I’m honestly so keen to,” Coates said. “I love simple volleyball and playing simple volleyball well, and I think we have done a very good job of that over the past two or three games of just doing the simple stuff at a high level and not trying to do all the showy stuff.”
Much like in the first set, Riverside opened the second set with a few key plays from Ibiezugbe to take the early 7-3 lead. Heritage responded in a big way, completing a 9-2 run to flip the script and claim their largest lead of the set at 12-9. Kim connected with Mehta for four kills during the span and also notched an ace of her own.
“A really big thing for us is communication, so I’m always asking my hitters, ‘What do you want?’” Kim said. “I think every rep is really important, so I’m making sure I know what they want, and also just knowing each hitters’ strengths and weaknesses is key.”
The Pride edge was short-lived, though, as the Rams came storming back on a 10-1 run to go up 19-13. A few kills and a block by Ibiezugbe, as well as a setter dump from Bowers, put Riverside in a position to tie up the match.
But Heritage had other plans. Kim found Holokai to side-out, and then sophomore libero Ellie Bott (11 digs, 2 aces, 1 assist) rattled off eight straight serves—including an ace—to put the Pride back in the driver’s seat. During the run, senior outside hitter Jasmine McBorrough (11 kills, 8 digs, 1 ace) recorded three kills, Bott provided solid defense during a couple long rallies, and Treloar shut down the Riverside offense with back-to-back blocks to take the 21-19 lead.
Although the Rams tied it twice at 22-22 and 23-23, a Treloar ace ended the set at 25-23 and gave the Pride the 2-0 advantage.
“In practice, we start with foundational work, and then we go into a lot of play. Most of our practices are centered around gameplay, and I think that really helps because we do a lot of high pressure drills or high pressure moments or validation where you keep setting one hitter until that hitter gets a kill. I think that builds our hitters’ mentalities to know that they have to keep going until they score,” Kim said. “We’ll also do a lot of defensive drills where the defensive specialists have to get out of their heads quickly, especially after shanking a ball. So I think that helps too, just playing a lot and getting those touches.”
The teams traded points to start the third set, but a couple small Riverside runs featuring kills from six different players and a big defensive effort from junior libero Audrey Fowler (13 digs, 1 ace) put the Rams up 12-6 and forced the Pride to burn a timeout.
The pause to reset proved effective, as Heritage earned the next 5 points behind a couple kills from McBorrough and a block from junior right side hitter Jocelyn Keller (7 kills, 2 blocks, 1 dig). After exchanging a few more points, the Pride started to pull ahead thanks to a couple Riverside miscues and kills from Mehta and Treloar on another 5-0 run.
After the Rams took a timeout to regroup, they pulled within one at 17-16. The defense on both sides was working hard during a long rally on the next point. Ultimately, Treloar ended it with a loud stuff block, but her back row teammates helped make that happen by digging balls and making saves to keep the play alive.
“We have five defensive specialists, and everybody’s battling 24/7. It’s never a comfortable seat for them; they always have to show out in order to either stay where they’re at or move somewhere else,” Coates said. “A lot of it is just them testing each other to determine who’s gonna be on the court and who’s not. We’re having a lot of competition in that spot, which is something we’ve never really had. It’s always been one core libero and then a follow-up DS. Right now, we have the pick up the litter, so a big pro for us is being able to grab from the bench and having depth there.”
Although Riverside cut the deficit to one a couple more times, it was not enough to overcome the momentum that the Pride had built. A frantic rally on match point was ended with a Holokai block—the team’s eighth of the set—to give Heritage the 25-22 win.
“They played a great game,” Kim said. “Their middle was hitting really well, but I think our team did a great job of getting out of serve-receive ruts quickly. We’ve been working on setting out quickly on the first ball, so I think that worked well too. This win feels really good, but we have to continue working hard, and we’ll see how it goes.”
Heritage (3-0, 6-2) will be immediately back in action for another non-league game at Osbourn Park on September 23, while Riverside (2-2, 3-8) will travel to Freedom on September 24 for a Potomac District match.
“We need to continue to focus on being able to execute the simple stuff well and consistently, and not falling off just because our opponent is aggressively serving, or somebody is banging a ball or two,” Coates said. “In the beginning of the season, we didn’t really have that high of competition. Now we’re playing higher quality teams than before, and I’m a little more open to what the possibilities could be. We could take it all the way.”