Leesburg, Va. — Beating a team once in a season is hard enough; twice is exciting; and three times is extremely impressive. But beating the same team three times in just nine days to secure the district regular season and to claim the district tournament championship is monumental.
The Riverside High School volleyball team did just that when they completed the regular season sweep of Briar Woods High School on October 18 and October 19 before sweeping the Falcons in straight sets—27-25, 26-24, 25-23—to claim the Potomac District championship on October 27 in Leesburg.
“It’s very relieving because we knew Briar Woods was going to be our toughest match,” Riverside head coach Reggie Cruz said. “We lost to them last year, and they were so good and they were young, so we knew that was the team to beat. We watched a lot of film, saw how they played other teams, and where our strengths can beat their weaknesses.”
[adrotate banner=”38″]While beating Briar Woods three times in nine days sounds hard enough, the Falcons and Rams played each of their three sets in the championship match to 2-point wins against a team that fought to the very end.
“It’s a friendly rivalry,” Cruz said. “My girls know a lot of their girls, and we respect them as a team and as individual players. They’re just good, and they know how to play together.”
The real turning point in the match came late in the second set when Briar Woods forced a Riverside timeout with the Rams trailing 16-23.
“We had strayed away from the game plan we had been working on for the past two weeks. When one person forgets, our chain weakens,” Cruz said. “We needed to buckle down on defense and that our offense would be strong enough to score some points. It was just a matter of playing the defense how we wanted to, and it all worked out.”
Out of that time out, Riverside rallied off six straight points to close the deficit to just 23-22, forcing the Falcons to take a time out.
Trailing 23-22, the Rams scored the next point to completely erase the previous 7-point deficit and tie things up at 23-23.
Briar Woods finally broke the scoring drought to give themselves a set point at 24-23, but Riverside responded with three straight points to steal the second set 26-24 and take a commanding 2-0 lead in the match.
Even with a 2-0 lead, the Rams knew they needed to be on their A game as the Falcons would fight until the end, before dropping the third and final set, 25-23, as the Rams hoisted the Potomac District championship trophy.
With the win, Riverside has secured the No. 1 seed out of the Potomac District and will host Riverbend in a VHSL Region 5D quarterfinal on November 3 in Leesburg. The Falcons will also host a Region 5D but their opponent is TBD. Finally, Independence won the Potomac District consolation game, earning them the No. 3 seed and a trip to a Region 5D quarterfinal at an undetermined site.
“We’re going to stay humble and stay hungry,” Cruz said. “At this point, every team has a chance to beat every team, so it’s just a matter of who’s hungrier and who has the heart.”
