No. 1 Arundel volleyball edges No. 3 Reservoir in 5 sets
Last season, both Arundel and Reservoir won state titles. Tuesday night in Gambrills, they met to see who would blink first. Advantage, Wildcats.
In a battle between Baltimore-area powerhouses, host and top-ranked Arundel took an early lead in the fifth set and held on to defeat No. 3 Reservoir, 25-23, 20-25, 25-15, 22-25, 15-13, in a key early-season litmus test for both teams.
How close was the match? Well, no team had more than a 10-point lead in any set, and that was only once. For most of the fiveset battle, the lead was within two or three points.
Senior Audrey Owens led the Wildcats with 17 kills, while Kelsey Holmes paced Reservoir with 15 kills and 11 digs.
“We knew this would be a challenge for us, and they certainly were,” said Arundel coach Ashley Yuscavage. “A lot of these girls play with each other, and against each other, in club volleyball, so there is some familiarity there. That was a great team we beat tonight, and they certainly pushed us.”
With the fifth set tied at 4, Bella Talley put down a kill and an ace, Payton Swinton did the same and Kiara Harmon added a kill to put Arundel ahead, 10-5. Reservoir used a kill by Destiny Olamide and a net violation by Arundel to cut the margin to 13-10. After an ace by Reservoir’s Mayah Tucker, Tucker committed a service error to make it 14-12. Holmes’ kill cut it to 14-13 before Swinton put the game away with a kill.
“Oh, the lessons we learned in this match,” said Reservoir coach Carole Ferrante. “We need to work on closing the block, and on just being smoother on the court. It was a great match between two great teams, and I take nothing away from Arundel. They played very well, but I was proud of us, too. We just kept fighting.”
“We really executed when we had to,” Owens said. “We knew they would be good, so we worked on our serve receive to prepare. It paid off for us tonight.”
Other volleyball scores:
Edgewood 3, Joppatowne 0
North Harford 3, Perryville 2
Patterson Mill 3, Fallston 2
Glenelg 3, Annapolis 0
Hammond 3, North County 0
South Carroll 3, Westminster 0
River Hill 3, Crofton 2
Annapolis Area Christian School 3, St. Vincent Pallotti 0
Girl soccer
River Hill 2, Glenelg 0: Already with a one-goal advantage, River Hill freshman midfielder Marella Virmani corralled the loose ball in the middle of the field.
With a Gladiators defender approaching, Virmani delivered a perfect through ball to senior Allie Lubitz. After a couple of touches, Lubitz fired the low shot past Gladiators goalie Bella Buscher for the Hawks’ second goal of the evening.
The score held for the final 49 minutes as the No. 14 Hawks defeated the No. 8 Gladiators, 2-0.
“I thought the difference between today and other games was that we really played like a unit,” Lubitz said. “Our chemistry was there today, we all just clicked. The energy was great from the bench and on the field. It was just a really great game. Every single day we are getting stronger, no one would have guessed that we would have been this strong.”
River Hill (3-1, 2-0) scored the opening goal in the 11th minute. Senior midfielder Ella Ferrer found a crease down the Hawks sideline pushing the ball upfield. Ferrer pushed into the box and fired a low shot far post past Buscher. Much of the Hawks’ early offensive success was generated by attacking out wide. — Jacob Steinberg, Baltimore Sun Media Eastern Tech 6, Catonsville 2: Trailing by a goal midway through the first half, Eastern Tech turned to seniors Emma Koller and Alexis Keller-Posen to seize the moment and ignite a rally that included four straight goals on the way to a 6-2 victory at Catonsville.
The Comets struck first with 22:15 left in the half on a corner kick from Ella Lesniewski that was deposited into the net out of midair by Stella Carmello. The Mavericks answered just 85 seconds later on a free kick by Keller-Posen that was flicked ahead by Koller to Elaina Williams, who finished it.
“I feel like this year our team chemistry is off the boards really good and we are known to trail and then come back,” Koller said. “Once we get down, we all kind of want to step it up because we know that we are better than how we were in the beginning.”
— Craig Clary, Baltimore Sun Media
Gerstell 3, Park 1
Fallston 1, Harford Tech 0
South Carroll 1, Boonsboro 0
Westminster 5, Thomas Johnson 1
Winters Mill 1, Smithsburg 0
Mercy 3, Century 0
Severna Park 4, Crofton 3
Severn 4, St. Mary’s 0
Boys soccer
Century 2, Dulaney 1: Century has a philosophy: Exert maximum effort at all moments, more than the other team, and the outcome will be duly earned. Tuesday night at Dulaney, the Knights’ efforts amounted to their first win of the season.
Aiden Luckenbaugh and Zach Maryanski scored in each half, converting set-pieces from Cooper Santos, and Century’s defense withstood a sustained second-half rally and late Dulaney goal to power the Knights to a 2-1 win over the host Lions.
“Just effort,” Century coach Trey Howes said. “We’ve been preaching it all season: We’re going to drown teams in our effort.”
— Colin Murphy, for Baltimore Sun Media
Westminster 4, Thomas Johnson 3
Liberty 3, Brunswick 1
South Carroll 3, Boonsboro 0
Winters Mill 7, Smithsburg 0
North County 4, Annapolis 1
Field hockey
Dulaney 1, Hereford 0: Since last season ended, Dulaney has been waiting for another chance to play rival Hereford.
“There was a feeling of wanting revenge since our loss at the county championship against Hereford,” Dulaney’s Eve Fowler said.
The two teams met again Tuesday with Dulaney coming off a season-opening loss. But the Lions were eager to get a shot at the Bulls. The game was filled with tension as the players never lost sight of the ball, both playing dynamic defense.
But Dulaney eventually broke through and its defense never faltered as the Lions scored a 1-0 victory.
After the teams traded defensive stands, Dulaney senior forward Alex Erdman finally
put her team on the scoreboard with a strong hit for a goal in the third quarter.
It was the first goal of the game — and of Erdman’s career.
— Keylin Perez, for Baltimore Sun Media
South Carroll 3, Walkersville 1
Westminster 3, Roland Park 1
Howard 6, Arundel 0
Chesapeake-AA 8, Atholton 0
Broadneck 5, Glenelg 1
Severna Park 3, River Hill 1
Manchester Valley 6, Middletown 0
Golf C. Milton Wright 206, Rising Sun 220, Harford Tech 224:
C. Milton Wright senior Trevor Heid fired a one-under-par round of 35 on Tuesday at Ruggles Golf Course on Aberdeen Proving Ground to lead the Mustangs to a tri-match victory.
Heid’s round, which included two birdies, a bogey and six pars, paced the Mustangs’ 206 total, well ahead of Rising Sun (220) and host Harford Tech (224).
— Randy McRoberts, Baltimore Sun Media
South Carroll 168, Liberty 181
Northeast 192, North County 233, Chesapeake Science Point 252, Glen Burnie 253, Meade 274
Oakland Mills boys 67, Howard 2
Howard girls 13, Oakland Mills 9