Centreville's Volleyball Team Rallies From an Opening-Game Loss to Sweep the Next Three and Defeat Westfield, 3-1

Centreville senior outside hitter Kelly Brugger admitted that when the Wildcats first heard about Westfield's 3-1 victory over Langley on Monday, they took more than a little notice. Langley, after all, is the only team that has defeated Centreville this season.

"When we heard that Westfield beat Langley we got a little nervous," Brugger said. "And I think that's a big part of the reason why we came out here all shaky in the first game tonight. That, and I think some of us were nervous, too, because there were so many fans here -- the most we've ever had. We knew this was a huge game."

The Wildcats' jitters showed in front of their large home crowd, which packed the bleachers from top to bottom, and they quickly fell behind, 8-3, in the opening game Thursday night. But despite eventually dropping that first game to the Bulldogs, 25-21, it was the Wildcats who scored four of the game's final five points.

Centreville fed off that new-found momentum, and rode the play and the leadership of seniors Brugger (12 kills), Sammy Hunt (34 assists), Jackie Moot (29 digs) and Allie Vandivier (six kills) to a 21-25, 25-13, 25-23, 25-19 victory.

"After that first game our nerves went away," Brugger said. "Once we saw what they had we knew that we could beat them, and we just took it to them."

The Wildcats dominated the second game, jumping to a 21-8 lead behind the solid serving of Moot (seven service points in Game 2), junior Kari Owens (four) and junior Allie Darling (three). Darling, who was in on seemingly every block, tip and hard-hit kill in that second game went on to lead Centreville with a match-high 14 kills.

Game 3 was the most closely contested on the night, as the two teams found themselves locked in a tie 13 times throughout the game, including at 20, 21, 22 and 23. But Brugger got Centerville to game-point with a hard-hit and well-place shot from the left side that she fired on a near horizontal line close to the net, and a Westfield error on the ensuing play closed out the victory.

Centreville fed off that new-found momentum, and rode the play and the leadership of seniors Brugger (12 kills), Sammy Hunt (34 assists), Jackie Moot (29 digs) and Allie Vandivier (six kills) to a 21-25, 25-13, 25-23, 25-19 victory.

"After that first game our nerves went away," Brugger said. "Once we saw what they had we knew that we could beat them, and we just took it to them."

The Wildcats dominated the second game, jumping to a 21-8 lead behind the solid serving of Moot (seven service points in Game 2), junior Kari Owens (four) and junior Allie Darling (three). Darling, who was in on seemingly every block, tip and hard-hit kill in that second game went on to lead Centreville with a match-high 14 kills.

Game 3 was the most closely contested on the night, as the two teams found themselves locked in a tie 13 times throughout the game, including at 20, 21, 22 and 23. But Brugger got Centerville to game-point with a hard-hit and well-place shot from the left side that she fired on a near horizontal line close to the net, and a Westfield error on the ensuing play closed out the victory.

"We're a team that once we get going and find some consistency we can really mix it up," Moot said. "We play great defense and offensively we can bang balls, we can tip it to spots on the floor where the opponent isn't ... all of those things. And you saw that in the second, third and fourth games. That's why we won."

Centreville jumped to another big lead in the fourth and final game, and brought its large and loud home crowd to its feet for match-point at 24-15. The Wildcat faithful were on their feet for a while -- the Bulldogs took the next four points -- before a middle hit by Vandivier ended the match.

"Anytime you come on the road to Centreville High School you face a great crowd and a team with a great volleyball tradition that you know is going to battle," Westfield Coach Jim Bour said. "In that second game we started really struggling with our passing, and that's our youth. But it was a good test for our younger players, and we'll go back and talk about how to keep getting better."

Bour worked all 15 of his players into the game, testing different combinations and trying to give his young team -- which lost five starters to graduation -- added experience that he hopes will pay off down the road. The Concorde District tournament begins Oct. 29, followed by the Northern Region tournament on Nov.6.

Centreville has captured the previous two district titles; Westfield has won the previous two regional championships.

"You don't see crowds like this every night, so we wanted to get everyone in there and see how they played," said Bour, whose team was led by junior outside hitter Sammy Spees (15 kills, 23 digs), junior setter Kat Lanigan (35 assists, two aces) and senior middle blocker Kelsey Maloney (12 kills, three blocks). "We have 15 girls and like I told them, we need everybody. We wanted to give them all a shot to see how they'd perform, and learn from it for the next time."

Centreville Coach Ken Moser went deep down his bench as well, but not so much to test his players as to simply utilize his team's depth.

"This is the deepest team I've ever had from top to bottom," Moser said. "And it's nice to have options like that. We've gotten off to a slow start all year in Game 1, and it happened again tonight. But at the end of that first game, even with the loss, we started turning the momentum our way and we just built on it from there.

"Defensively we were getting every ball right to where the setter was able to get her hands on it and convert it so that our hitters could take swings at the ball. I liked how aggressive we were both offensively and defensively. I think that got them -- and kept them -- on their heels."


*Photos courtesy of Sue Spencer of Perfect Shot Photos. Perfect Shot is accepting limited shooting assignments for the Fall to make sure all who want pictures are covered. For more information, please go to http://web.mac.com/perfectshot.

** To see complete highlights from Thursday's match, as well as a video interview with Centreville senior middle blocker Allie Vandivier, click on the "Volleyball" sports central link at the top of the Digital Sports home page.