River Hill junior hitter Megan Rosburg has been in Maryland for less than a year, but she’s already become pretty adept at reading the lay of the volleyball land in Howard County. So she knew the significance of her team’s three-game sweep of Reservoir (11-5) in the 3A East regional quarterfinals Monday.

“It’s just a great rivalry. This is my first season here, but I already know it,” said Rosburg, who had six kills and three aces in the 25-9, 25-15, 25-17 win over the 2007 county and state champions. “We have our backs to the wall. We’ve been working all year for this, so it brings out the best in us.”

Rosburg, who was at the service line for the Hawks' last five points, moved to Clarksville from Atlanta last spring when her father, Jerry, became the assistant head coach and special teams coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens.

“Megan is (solid) all the way around. You know you’re going to get great things on defense, on offense, and those last three or four serves were just amazing,” River Hill coach Sybil Modispacher said. “She doesn’t like to make a mistake, she doesn’t like to lose even a point, and she pulls everyone else up.”

The first time Reservoir and River Hill (14-1) played this season, River Hill won in three games by a total score of 75-32. This time it was 75-41.

“Our last two days of practice have probably been the best we’ve had all season long. I did not see this coming, I thought it was going to be a much closer match, a much tougher battle, and to get shut down like that was kind of devastating,” Reservoir coach Carole Ferrante said.

The Gators were coming off of a five-game win over Mt. Hebron in the opening round of the playoffs, which avenged one of their three league losses. The other two losses were to Centennial and River Hill.

In the Mt. Hebron match, Reservoir senior Julie Poston broke the 1,000-kill mark for her career, finishing with 1,002. She added seven more against River Hill, which was about 40 percent of her team’s total. Liz Lee and Athena White added three each.

The Hawks did not allow a single ace, but served 11 of them, including four by Carolyn Kleinberger and three by Caitlin Davis.

Sarah Okey led the Hawks with 13 kills, while Nikki Piper (seven), Sarah Gordon (four) and Melody Nazari (three) combined for 14 more.

River Hill will play at home against Wilde Lake (4-9) in the 3A East semifinal Wednesday. On the other side of the bracket, Centennial (16-0) will play Stephen Decatur (14-3). If the top seeds win, Centennial will play at home against  River Hill on Friday for the regional championship and a spot in the state semifinals.

“It’s just two great teams just like these ... it just brings out the best in everyone, and it’s fun to watch. It’s a beautiful sport,” said Rosburg of the potential rematch with Centennial.

In the 2A South tournament, Glenelg (8-8) will play at Patuxent (9-5), and Marriotts Ridge (10-6) will play at Southern (11-5) Wednesday.

In their quarterfinal win over McDonough, Marriotts Ridge was led by Megan Lucas (10 kills, 10 digs), Hannah Springer (five aces, four kills), Meredith Krzys (20 assists), Marybeth Poulton (five kills, two point blocks) and Faith Katsman (16 digs).

---

user comments (0)