South County senior Rachel Snare finished with nine kills and two aces against West Potomac on Tuesday. Photo by Craig Sterbutzel.
With South County comfortably ahead in the third set of Tuesday’s match against West Potomac, Stallions senior Cathy Scaniffe sent a serve over the net. The ball sailed through the air, drilled a Wolverine player in the face and fell to the floor, giving the Stallions an 11-3 lead.
It was that kind of night for both teams, as South County put forth a dominant performance behind the service line and West Potomac never had a chance.
The South County volleyball team defeated West Potomac 3-0 (25-7, 25-12, 25-12) on Sept. 30 at South County High School. The Stallions totaled 16 aces and showed the necessary improvement to satisfy head coach Trista Barnhart.
“We did not serve so well the last match, so we worked on that specifically in practice,” Barnhart said. “The girls knew they had to come out here and prove to me what we did in practice would relay [to the match], which they did. I was really proud of what they did.”
What was the problem before?
“I would definitely say that they were worried about looking bad or missing the serve or disappointing the team,” Barnhart said, “when they need to go back positive like, ‘I’m going to get this.’”
Negativity was not an issue for South County on Tuesday. The Stallions served with power and finesse, and took control of the match.
“We knew that we could beat this team,” senior setter Amber Ragunas said, “so we weren’t really as worried and in our heads about serving.”
Freshman defensive specialist Cassidy Ragunas, junior libero Brooke Birch, junior defensive specialist Kori Thomas and Amber Ragunas each had three aces for South County. Senior outside hitter Scaniffe and senior middle blocker Rachel Snare each had two.
When the Stallions needed more than just a serve to score, Scaniffe, Snare and junior opposite hitter Gabrielle Hall took care of business. Scaniffe finished with 10 kills, Snare totaled nine and Hall had seven.
“[Scaniffe is] great mid-approach at [deciding where to place her attack] and going strong,” Barnhart said. “Rachel is just flat-out aggressive. She really goes after it. Especially this year, being a senior, she has the full confidence that I’ve been wanting out of her for the past two seasons, and this year she’s just full-blown going at it."
Jessica Dorn led West Potomac with six kills.
The victory improved South County’s record to 16-2. The defending Conference 7 champions returned nine players from last season.
“We know that we have a target on our back and we know that teams are going to play harder against us because we’ve been told that teams do play better when they play us,” Snare said. “Mostly, it’s just given us motivation to go further.”
South County will play four straight road matches, starting with a contest against Lee at 7:15 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 6. West Potomac (5-4) will host Stuart at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 7.