Stonebridge Cavs SportsBlog*

Losses to Denbigh and Hampton Show SBS What It Will Take September 21, 2008

Two defeats bracketing StoneBridge’s annual school retreat come early enough in the season to serve as an excellent teaching moment for a young team in transition to the conference’s top tier. “These defeats were difficult but they can serve as a blessing in disguise if we will glean the lessons we need to improve,” said coach Elliott. “Namely, in order to beat the better teams, we must start strong and compete on every point. And we’re still learning how to pick each other up after physical and mental errors.”

Game Summary: Denbigh
For a team transitioning to the upper tier of the conference, every game can provide new lessons. This game’s lesson — we cannot count on winning the match if we do not compete in the first game. The total score of the final three games was 76-76, showing that these two teams were very evenly matched. Denbigh prevailed on the strength of two-point overtime victories in games two and four. “I didn’t know volleyball could be so much fun,” said one StoneBridge parent as the two teams traded tough points in the deciding game. Credit to Denbigh — a well coached, disciplined team that competes on every point — for prevailing. But we look forward to the rematch! Ashlea Foster: 15 kills; Rachel Rowe 11 kills.

Game Summary: Hampton Christian
Hampton Christian solidified its hold on second place in the conference with a convincing victory over a young StoneBridge team that is learning what it will take to compete with the top tier teams. SBS literally lost the match on the first two service turns for Hampton in games one and two as we spotted our opponents with 10+ points which is too large of a deficit to overcome. Overall, we had 26 failed service receptions and just a 60% success rate — far below our 83% season average coming in to the game. Despite convincing losses in the first two games, SBS can take away from this match confidence that we can compete — and beat — teams like Hampton. We led the game late and had the serve at 22-22.

Dinning Helps “Serve” Up SBS Volleyball’s Fifth Win September 14, 2008

Gamedate: 9/12/08. Even though the SBS girls varsity volleyball team clearly had the upper hand on Oaktree, the score half way through the second game didn’t indicate such. The two teams played a close game one and now Oaktree held a 15-10 advantage when Emily Dinning took the ball for her serve.

Twelve points and five aces later, SBS was back in control and on its way to a 3-0 victory. “Emily’s 12 serves changed the entire game,” said coach Elliott. “It’s something we talked about since our first practice — we need to be able to get ten serves in in a row to turn games around. And Emily did just that.” Add in Ashlea Foster’s 14 kills, Rachel Rowe’s 10 kills and seven aces, and Megan Gilbert’s eight assists and SBS was able to finish off the week 4-0 and improve its record to 5-1 (3-1 in the conference). Next up: 2007 conference runner-up Denbigh Baptist.

Once again, the JV led the way for the varsity with a victory over Oaktree. With a sweep of four games this week, the JV improved to 4-2, making this the most victorious JV volleyball team in SBS history. Congrats!

VaPilot mention of victory over Oaktree.

SBS Volleyball Gets First Home Win September 8, 2008

9/8/08 at SBS. Against an upstart program, SBS girls bounced back and played a much improved game in sweeping Faith Baptist by a score of 3-0. Ashlea Foster’s 17 kills led the way and Laura Rader’s 12 assists kept StoneBridge in control throughout the match. SBS’s return and service percentages were much higher and overall team cohesion improved as the team heads into a very busy stretch of games. Rachel Rowe added seven aces on 19 serves to go with nine kills and now leads the team with 30 aces in three games.

A Libero!
In a major development, SBS employed for the first time a libero as Geli Ziegler wore the white jersey and manned the back row. Geli was 5 for 5 in service receptions in the new role as SBS improved to 2-1 overall.

First Defeat Comes At Hands Of Alliance September 8, 2008

9/5/08 at SBS. Rough game all around. We had trouble serving, returning, setting, etc. It’s definitely one of those games you brush off quickly and move on especially since the games will come very rapidly over the next few weeks. Credit to Alliance Christian for playing consistent volleyball. They were definitely the more comfortable team. But we left the court knowing we can compete with Alliance and beat them if we play our game. Onward! (Geli Zieger 8 of 9 service receptions, 4 of 4 serves;

SBS Varsity Volleyball Opens By Serving Up Win Over Williamsburg September 3, 2008

9/2/08. “How about that girl with all the aces?” That’s what the Williamsburg coach said as the two head coaches looked for stats to report to the local newspapers after SBS’s 3-1 victory over Williamsburg Christian.

“That girl” was our very one Rachel Rowe, who put 40 of 42 serves in play — itself quite a feat. But when combined with the fact that half her serves went for aces, the .952 serving percentage stands out even more. But Rachel was not alone in showing excellence from the service line. SBS had seven players with at least seven attempts and each put more than 80% in play. Overall, SBS put 97 of 105 serves in the court (.924) and 29 went for aces. “In the end, our ability to get serves in and win points off the serve made the difference,” said coach Steve Elliott. “It was truly a team effort.”

Ashlea Foster led the way with 16 kills with Rowe adding 11 — supported by 17 assists by Laura Rader — as SBS held off a feisty Williamsburg team. “They are a solid returning/passing team,” said Elliott. “Not a lot of big hitters or servers, but they kept returning what I thought were some strong hits by our girls. I expect a tough rematch later in the season.”

(25-23, 26-28, 25-21, 25-17)

SBS 2008 Volleyball–Aiming High! September 3, 2008

Here’s the highlights from the briefing we sent to the Virginian-Pilot on the 2008 SBS Girls Varsity Volleyball season….

StoneBridge volleyball took significant strides forward in 2007 and we expect 2008 to be a breakthrough year. The varsity team is led by our co-captains, Ashlea Foster and Rachel Rowe, who came to StoneBridge with strong volleyball pedigree and are elevating our program with their skill and passion for volleyball. The core of the team is young and will feature several sophomores, including two setters who started as freshmen. Our theme for the year is “cohesion” and our success will depend on our ability to feature our strongest players and develop clearly defined roles in a mix that focuses on “sticking together.” The program overall is on the rise with interest at the younger 6-9 grades extremely high.

Potential Storylines…
The interesting story here is a program that is in transition from league doormat to competitor and hopefully to the top tier. This has happened with StoneBridge basketball over the past half-dozen years and we see that we are in the midst of that same process. Enthusiasm is high. We have more girls participating than ever before. We have strong top-tier players and younger players learning roles.

Key Players…

Ashlea Foser        12    Outside Hitter     5-11    STATS
Co-Captain. Ashlea is a strong, athletic hitter with a big serve who is fiercely competitive. She led our team last year as a junior in kills and I expect her to have a big senior season.

Rachel Rowe, 11, Outside Hitter, 5-8, STATS.
Co-Captain. Rachel is a strong hitter and our best server. She is an excellent all-around player who will be asked to help lead a core of young players this year.

Laura Radar, 10, Setter. 5-4.
Laura started as a fresh man setter, is very athletic and has a bright volleyball future.

Megan Gilbert 10, Setter, 5-4.
Megan started as a freshman setter, is a fearless competitor and has much upside potential.