St. Margaret’s Ilona Syzdek jousts at the net with Veritas’ Aurelia Hassler (44).
The St. Margaret’s volleyball team continues in its search of its initial win of the 2023 season following a three-set League of Independent Schools loss at the hands of Veritas School.
Veritas, from Brook Road in Richmond, won the match contested on September 14 at Ball Memorial Gymnasium on Water Lane in Tappahannock 25-16, 25-16, and 25-9.
The result lifted Veritas’ record to 2-3, while the Scotties remained winless following five outings.
While St. Margaret’s did well at times counterattacking the Lions play at the net, Veritas scored two thirds of its points on winners.
“This was a good team effort,” Veritas coach Katie Hardell said. “Everyone who I put in did a good job of contributing. It was a good opportunity to see people play different positions. We worked on a lot of things in practice over the course of the past week and that translated on the court tonight.”
The Lions’ attacks produced a 50-15 advantage in winners.
The Scotties’ Kendall Quinn (3) gets a spike over the defense of Veritas blocker Danielle Kenny.
“I have a coaching mentor and we’ve been talking a lot about points we’ve been giving up,” Hardell said. “So, we’ve been focusing on points we can earn. So that switch in the brain allowed them to be more aggressive instead of worrying about the fear of messing up. That was a huge part of tonight’s mind-set.”
In the opening set, the visitors broke out to an 11-3 lead before the Scotties rattled off six unanswered points — four on winners — to close the gap to 11-9.
An ensuing 6-1 scoring run gave Veritas a 17-10 edge.
Later, the Lions’ Lizzie Cobb dropped in a spike to put Veritas at set-point, and Aurelia Hassler’s subsequent kill gave the opening set to the visitors.
The Scotties held a pair of early leads in the second set and the contest was deadlocked at 7-apiece when the Lions reeled off eight unanswered points for a 15-7 cushion.
The Lions reached set-point (24-14) when a St. Margaret’s service landed out-of-bounds.
The Scotties’ Azaliah Sedogo attacks the net against the defense of Veritas’ Danielle Kenny.
After St. Margaret’s closed the gap to 24-16, the Lions’ Danielle Kenny’s successful spike gave Veritas a 2-0 set advantage.
The Scotties held their largest advantage of the evening (4-2) early in the third set, but the Lions used a 9-0 scoring burst to take command.
Hassler’s successful block at match-point brought an end to the proceedings.
St. Margaret’s coach Jaleh Javadpour was unavailable for comment following the contest.
St. Margaret’s Yvelisse Cabocel delivers a set as teammate Jade Wright awaits the outcome.
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