Ashburn, Va. — The majority of the Stone Bridge High School girls volleyball roster is made up of sophomores, several of whom played on the varsity team during the 2025 season. While the young squad is still prone to mistakes and inexperience, they displayed great maturity during their September 29 match against John Champe High School. After leading from start to finish in the first set, the Bulldogs overcame a 5-point deficit late in the second set, and cruised to a third-set victory to complete the 25-20, 25-19, 25-17 sweep.
“That’s a good group of players, and they are tenth-graders,” Stone Bridge head coach Nadezhda Shulga said. “Last year we started from scratch and went point by point. I was upset that we lost a few games that we shouldn’t have. So it feels good [to get this win], because I know how well they can play.”
The Bulldogs jumped out to the early 7-3 lead as sophomore setter Adelena Akers (14 assists, 3 digs, 1 ace) connected offensively with three different hitters. John Champe took advantage of some Bulldog errors, as well as a few kills from senior setter/right side hitter Caycee Chhum (11 kills, 9 digs, 4 assists) dished out by senior setter Jazel Oblepias (6 assists, 6 digs), to bring the set to its closest margin at 12-10.
But from there, Stone Bridge sophomore outside hitter Isabel Suarez (8 digs, 6 kills, 6 aces) went on an 8-0 service run, recording 3 aces along the way. Akers also found sophomore outside hitter Makenna Stocks (7 kills, 6 digs, 2 aces) for a pair of kills as the Bulldogs doubled-up the Knights, 20-10.
“I was watching both of [John Champe’s] last games with Potomac Falls and Freedom. They won the first two sets against Freedom, and they played really well with Potomac Falls,” Shulga said. “So what I told the girls today is: you gotta be aggressive from the very beginning. Even if you’re making mistakes, you gotta be aggressive. They played really well and were very aggressive.”
On the defensive side, Suarez provided solid back row coverage and tallied 7 of her digs in the first set. On the other side of the net, John Champe senior libero Shivika Nigam (12 digs, 4 assists, 1 ace) matched the effort with 7 digs of her own to help give the Knights additional opportunities.
Although John Champe fought to stay in it with back-to-back aces from junior outside hitter Avah Smith (2 kills, 2 aces, 1 dig) and another Chhum kill on an 8-1 run to bring the score to 21-18, Stone Bridge continued to side-out for the remainder of the set and won 25-20.
Nigam stepped in to take the second ball on a couple out-of-system plays to start the second set, and Chhum terminated to establish an early 4-0 Knights lead, which forced Stone Bridge to burn a timeout.
The Bulldogs responded by capitalizing on a few John Champe miscues and overtook the lead behind back-to-back aces from sophomore setter Feven Getachew (6 assists, 6 aces, 1 kill, 1 dig).
But the advantage was short-lived, as John Champe junior middle hitter Sierra Richardson (3 digs, 2 kills, 1 block, 1 ace) made a couple big plays at the net to turn the tide back in her team’s favor. The Knights then built a cushion as the Stone Bridge mistakes piled up and Chhum recorded a couple more kills to bring the score to 18-13.
“They were up, and I told my girls, ‘You gotta calm down. We’re losing because we started making mistakes, and they started being aggressive. We need to be aggressive,’” Shulga said. “So our goal was to be more aggressive than they were and to have more energy than they had and to have a really calm mindset, but still be aggressive.”
After the Bulldogs sided-out, Stone Bridge sophomore libero Ayva Agno (6 digs, 5 aces, 1 kill) went to the service line and rattled off three consecutive aces. John Champe called a timeout in hopes of freezing her, but the Bulldogs earned the next three points to take the 20-18 advantage and cause the Knights to burn their second timeout.
Although John Champe scored the following point to bring the set within one, the young Stone Bridge squad kept their composure and recorded the next five points, including another trio of aces from Getachew to finish the set 25-19.
“Last game we lost, and we missed 14 serves. That hurt us a lot,” Shulga said. “So we’ve been working on serving and talking about how important serving is, and today we tried to focus on spot serving.”
The Bulldogs continued with the momentum built at the end of the second set to establish a 6-1 lead in the third set behind a pair of kills from sophomore right side hitter Tiffany French (8 kills, 1 dig). Stone Bridge further extended the lead as sophomore middle hitter Amaya Sam (5 kills, 2 digs) recorded a couple kills and a few players serving aggressively contributed aces.
The teams traded points through the middle stretch, as Oblepias connected with Chhum for a few kills in the Knights’ attempt to salvage the match. But a couple more kills from French and another Agno ace put the game out of reach. Sam ended it with a pair of statement kills, as Stone Bridge won the third set, 25-17.
John Champe (0-6, 1-10) will look to immediately rebound when they travel to Lightridge on September 30. Stone Bridge (1-5, 3-9) will face Heritage in a non-league match on October 1 ahead of the back half of their Potomac District schedule.
“Our right side is the only senior, and she got hurt last game, so she’s out until the end of the season. Now we’re playing almost all sophomores, so we are one of the youngest teams,” Shulga said. “I always prepare them to play point by point and to have that mindset for every game so it doesn’t matter who’s on the other side. We focus on our game, and we’ll see how far we can go.”