THE GAZETTE
Page B-4
Wednesday, September 25, 2013 r
Poolesville’s senior core inspires big hopes Holy Cross field hockey
remains the team to beat
Volleyball: A big veteran class hopes to win program’s first state title since 2008 n
TRAVIS MEWHIRTER STAFF WRITER
Sarah Kenneweg admitted to having a little skepticism at first. So did Rosie Barry and Emily Agate. Sure, their Poolesville High School girls’ volleyball team was returning six seniors from a traditionally successful program while the rest of the county was suffering from heavy graduation losses, but there was still something amiss. Maybe it was early-season jitters or the uncertainty of how a few new faces would jell with the rest of the squad, but a trip to Deep Creek Lake, where coach Fran DuVall’s sister-in-law has a house, two weekends ago assuaged all fear. They hung out by the lake, individually speaking about their goals and where they wanted the team to be by the season’s end. That’s when Kenneweg said she realized that everybody had already bought in, even freshman Caroline Leng, who had been on the team for just a few weeks. “Not everyone played club in the spring so not a lot of people thought we’d be where we needed to be to contend for a state championship,” said Agate, who posted 19 kills in a threeday stretch during sweeps against Gaithersburg (11) and Quince Orchard (eight). “We’ve been working hard at bonding together and since some of us have been together so long we work so well together.” Even DuVall, who admits to being “generally one of those coaches who’s not overly-pleased with where we are,” said that she has been impressed with the leadership on her team. Each one of her six seniors has been on varsity since at least their sophomore year, several since their freshman campaigns as well. “When you have seniors who can articulate what we want, it makes it easier for the rest of the team to play to your strengths,” she said. “It’s particularly nice with this group because when they were sophomores and juniors they had to be leaders. They didn’t have a choice.” Now that the core of the team is comprised of seniors rather than under-experienced juniors and sophomores being asked to step up, DuVall said there is no lack of leadership or role models. It starts with Kenneweg, a four-year varsity libero with a verbal commitment to play for Seton Hall University. She’s the glue holding together an eclectic mix of six seniors, four juniors, two sophomores and a freshman. “She’s stronger, she’s quicker,
Volleyball n 1. Academy of the Holy Cross
Academy of the Holy Cross, until someone proves otherwise, is the field hockey team to beat in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference. That’s generally what comes after a team wins five straight conference championships.
n 2. Sherwood n 3. Damascus n 4. Poolesville n 5. Thomas S. Wootton
Golf
PREP NOTEBOOK
n 1. Walter Johnson
BY TRAVIS MEWHIRTER
TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE
Poolesville High School’s Rosie Barry (back) hits the ball against Rockville on Thursday.
TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE
Poolesville High School’s Sarah Kenneweg digs the ball against Rockville on Thursday.
she’s the best player in my gym, hands down,” DuVall said. “She knows the game and her skills and the way you can use her skills. She has so much range that she can use her skills on every inch of the court.” Gaithersburg coach Michele Staymates echoed that sentiment following her Trojans’ 3-0 loss to the Falcons, saying that “Poolesville is going to get better and better as the season goes on. What makes their team a great team is their libero and their setter.” With Kenneweg patrolling the
back, ensuring clean passes to the setters, it has made things easier for Barry and Agate to get their hits. And, so far at least, when Barry or Agate get their swings in, there hasn’t been much stopping them. “I love hitting,” Barry said. “And Emily is definitely one of the most improved players on our team. It’s great. We can run a lot of different sets that other teams don’t even know about.” Whatever sets they have been running, they seem to have been quite effective. As Agate has expanded her arsenal at the net, enabling the Falcons to open things up a bit more, she has also become something of a mentor for Leng, who stands 5-foot-11 and recorded eight kills in the win over Quince Orchard. “I’ve worked on transitioning a lot, moving around the net a lot more,” Agate said. “So I’ve been helping Caroline with that. I’m definitely more confident in the game setting than I was before, less nervous.” And, as a whole, the team is less nervous about the direction this season is headed. “We’re trying to be the loudest team in the gym,” Agate said. “I want other teams to remember how hard we worked, that we didn’t let a ball drop to the floor. I want teams to remember us.” tmewhirter@gazette.net
This fall, seven games into the season, a potential challenger has not emerged and the Tartans appear as strong as ever, giving up no goals yet in conference games, Since beginning WCAC play on Sept. 9 with a home game against St. Mary’s Ryken, Holy Cross has rattled off consecutive shutout wins, the most recent being a 3-0 victory over rival and fellow powerhouse Our Lady of Good Counsel. Goalie Kathleen Mauck has been untouchable, allowing the Tartans to outscore Ryken and Good Counsel by a combined 7-0 score prior to Monday’s tilt with Bishop Ireton, and senior defender Kristyn Gaines has done her part to ensure Mauck’s workload is fairly limited. “That’s the best I’ve ever seen [Gaines] play,” first-year coach Lindsey Weller said after the Tartans spoiled Good Counsel’s spirit week. “She took a little while to warm up but she’s completely out of her shell, she’s controlling the defense. It’s awesome. Our goalie had an unbelievable game. That’s the best I’ve ever seen her play so yeah, it was the best I’ve seen them play as a unit.”
Volleyball Mary Malinauskas said that her Thomas S. Wootton volleyball team is playing “much better than I anticipated” at the onset of the season. How well she expected them to play isn’t entirely clear, but it took three matches for anybody to even take a set from the Patriots, which Northwest finally did on Thursday. “We got a lot of kids stepping up all over the place,” she said on Sunday afternoon, three days after topping the Jags 25-22, 22-25, 25-17, 22-25, 15-11. “The game with Northwest was great fun. It was one of those things where they got the determina-
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HELIO SOUZA
n 2. Winston Churchill n 3. Thomas S. Wootton n 4. Walt Whitman n 5. Quince Orchard
Field hockey n 1. Thomas S. Wootton n 2. Walter Johnson n 3. Sherwood n 4. Winston Churchill n 5. Academy of the Holy Cross
tion that they weren’t going to lose.” Apparently Damascus had that same determination on Friday when the Swarmin’ Hornets visited Jessica Tynes and Gaithersburg. As Northwest did to Wootton, the Trojans became the first team to pick up a set on No. 3 Damascus, but the hitting combination of Annika Schwartz (15 kills, 16 digs) and Madison Wyatt (16 kills) overwhelmed the hosts as Damascus won with a 15-4 final set victory to stretch their record to 4-0.
Golf Another week, another undefeated run for Walter Johnson, which continues to establish itself as the front-runner in the state’s strongest county. Though the Wildcats failed to break 200 for the first time this season, they still boast an average more than four strokes lower than both Thomas S. Wootton and Walt Whitman. After somewhat of a rough start for the defending state champion Patriots, Wootton seems to be on the right track again or heading somewhere in that direction. Delaney Shah posted a season-best 33 and now leads the county with a 35.25 average, nearly a full stroke better than Whitman’s Graham Hutchinson. 1906764
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Walter Johnson golf stays hot; Wootton, Damascus volleyball continue dominance n