Sports - OnLine
Volleyball
Mustangs Spike Rams to Go to 2-4 in District

By Kendra Webb (Jan. 18, 2002)

Coach Barbara Mahony's volleyball charges have shown marked
improvement lately and beat the Strasburg Rams Tuesday night
to improve to 2-4 in the Bull Run District. The Mustangs take on
Brentsville Friday night away.
The girls’ varsity volleyball team came out victorious this past Tuesday night over the Strasburg Rams to improve their struggling record to 2-4 in the Bull Run District. In the first of three games, points came rather exclusively behind the somewhat phenomenal serves of Adrienne Thompson, Beth Parks, and Laura Straub, each also contributed one ace. Even after falling quickly behind 0-3, the Mustangs stormed ahead, never looking back, to finish the first game 15-9. Featured in the game were two kills each by Thompson and Kendra Webb, as well as three blocks by Webb.
Game two started off well for Mason, pulling out early for a 3-0 lead with a couple of aces by Parks. From there, however, the Rams were able to come back from volleys made by the Mustangs, 7-4. The girls luckily recovered and took another lead behind a 4-point serving run by Webb. Strasburg next took advantage and ran up the score to game point before losing concentration, giving Mason the chance to recuperate a bit, with great kills by Thompson, Straub, Aysha Twose, and Leen Quintyn. The Rams were able to eventually finish it up, however, scoring their game point after a total of 17 sideouts, and turning the tables from game 1, allowing Mason only 9 points

Even with their momentum going into the third game, the Strasburg team was unable to receive the powerful serves of Parks, who racked up the points taking an early lead of 5-1, including an unparalleled 3 consecutive aces. From there, the play was relatively even as great defensive abilities were shown from both courts. Eventually, the Rams found themselves up 10-8, but the Mason squad mustered determination during a time-out, were able to turn the ball over, and continued to run up 5 points behind the beastly serving of Thompson, who also pounded in 2 aces. The next few volleys were no doubt high-intensity for both teams, as they were nearly tied up, until the Mustang team found themselves with the serve, up 14-13, with the match point staring them right in the face. Unable to return the serve of Straub, the visiting Rams fell to the Mustangs, with a final score of 15-13. With game three came kills by Thompson (2) and Webb (4), as well as a nearly perfect team serving statistic of 24 of 26. 

Commenting on the match, head coach Barbara Mahony remarked, "If I had a game ball to give out tonight, I could not give it to one single person. The whole squad played well as a team with great movement. If we even play three-fourths of how we played tonight, we can beat any team in the district." With that said, the girls’ will travel Friday night to near-by Brentsville to take on their archrivals, the Tigers.