The Thomas Jefferson Colonials women’s vollyball team won their Senior Night match in convincing style with a solid three games to zero victory over visiting South Lakes.
Liberty District rising power Thomas Jefferson of West Alexandria knocked off Liberty District rival and eighth-seeded South Lakes (Reston) 25-18, 25-16 and 25-13 on October 23 to send their eight seniors out on a winning note in concluding their regular season.
The Lady Colonials, coached by veteran Charlee Johnson, wasted little time in taking control of the match.
Jefferson virtually led all three games from start to finish and finished one of their finest regular seasons in school history.
Senior outside hitter/middle hitter Suzy Hastings commented on the key to the match, saying, We got a lot of blocks tonight. We played very good defense and we also made some good digs.
The Red, White and Blue Colonials concluded the regular season with an impressive overall record of 10-6 (4-3 Liberty).
This season, Jefferson was spearheaded by their two senior captains, setter/outside hitter Meghan Kelly as well as Hastings.
Coach Johnson, in referring to her two captains, said, Meghan is pretty much the quarterback of the team. She really uses her head out there. She has gotten more confident with her jump serve this season. Suzy is a born leader. She has really picked her teammates up this season and she has recorded a sizeable number of kills this year.
Kelly also commented on the season, saying, This has been our best year ever [in the last few seasons]. There is good chemistry on this team and we have clicked well this season.
In addition to Kelly and Hastings, the Lady Colonials were also led by six other seniors: Clara Bergeron, Kami Goldin, Stephanie Marris, Rebecca Moye, Molly Patterson and Camille Vu.
The underclassmen consisted of: Blair Graham, Angela Liu, Kathleen Roche and Emily Schultz.
In terms of season stats, coach Johnson said, Angela Liu had approximately 220 digs, Suzy Hastings had approximately 140 kills and 110 digs and Meghan Kelly had approximately 35 service aces.
The third-seeded Colonials then hosted the Liberty District sixth-seeded Madison on October 27 in the District quarterfinals round.
Unfortunately, things did not go well for Jefferson. The Colonials dropped a very competitive three games to two match to the visiting Warhawks.
We won games one and two, but unfortunately things didnt go so well in games three, four and five said coach Johnson. Both teams played well. It was a back and forth type of match. Despite the loss, it was quite an accomplishment to have finished third in the District in the regular season. No one expected us to have finished that high.
Consequently, the Colonials wrapped up the 08 campaign with an overall record of 10-7.
Coach Johnson was assisted by Kristy Wright.