Centennial had good reason to come into Marriotts Ridge Tuesday feeling uneasy. Just five days before, the Eagles had played the Mustangs in Marriottsville and won a much-too-close-for-comfort five-game match in the teams’ regular- season finale. The win clinched Centennial’s 15th county title.

So the Eagles were delighted, and maybe a little relieved, to come back to Marriotts Ridge for the neutral site District V championship, the first one, and sweep Anne Arundel county champion Severna Park, 25-21, 31-29, 25-22.

“Severna Park tends to control a lot of the district ... I’m pleased and surprised that we were able to do it in three,” Centennial coach Larry Schofield said.

The match was no typical sweep.

Severna Park jumped out to an 8-0 lead in Game 1, 5-0 in Game 3 and led, 24-22, in Game 2.

“Normally, we get leads like that and we start playing our best, and we just didn’t. We weren’t there today,” said Severna Park senior Tempe Martens, who had seven kills and two aces.

Severna Park was also led by twin towers Trish Kallis (six kills, four blocks) and Christi Laite (10 kills, two blocks). Samantha Henke added eight kills.

Even when his team was up 8-0 in the first game, Severna Park coach Jamie Leventry did not get too excited.

“(Centennial was) making a bunch of mistakes. I knew at some point they were going to put it together, and they did,” he said.

Even through their early hitting miscues, the Eagles showed their trademark excellence on serves and serve receive.

Tempe’s two aces were a team high and the Falcons managed only three in the match. Centennial, led by freshman Trisha Mockapetris (four) and Vicky Rain (three), had nine aces as a team.

“We won because our serving was tough and our serve receive was nails. Kelsey Gibbons was passing nails, Samantha Brostrom (team-high eight kills) was on again. And we were led by a freshman to an extent: Trisha Mockapetris with her serving and her attacking (five kills),” Schofield said.

Michele Klima (seven kills) and Sarah Hall (six) also paced the offense.

The Eagles now have 14 state titles, 16 region titles, 15 county titles ... and one district title.

“It’s pretty cool because you know that you just beat another county, so you’re not only the best in your county, you’re the best out of two counties,” junior Liz Brown said. She had four kills and a block, and also ran the Eagles’ offense as setter. “Now it’s just up from here hopefully ... we’ve got districts and we’ve got counties, so now we’re just going for the other two.”







For more video from this match, visit youtube.com/user/ExploreHoward.

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