The Flint Hill Huskies won their second-straight city championship after defeating the Our Lady of Good Counsel Falcons on Monday at Maret in Washington, D.C.
It marked the third year in a row both teams competed against each other in the city title, prompting a classic high school rivalry to ensue ever since. Two years ago, Good Counsel took the title in five games. This year, as well as last year, the Huskies beat the Falcons in four games.
And despite the night before and a win over Good Counsel on Falcons' turf last week, the Huskies weren't taking anything for granted.
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"We knew this was going to be a dogfight," said Flint Hill head coach Carrol Anderson. "It's just a great, intense rivalry."
In the first set, things weren't looking good for Huskies when their miscues helped the Falcons pull ahead after a 4-0 run put the score at 15-14, Falcons. The Falcons kept the lead the rest of the way and won 25-21.
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In the second set, the miscues continued as the Falcons went on a 10-2 run. Anderson called a second timeout to regroup and re-energize the team.
"They knew what they needed to do, it's just a matter of executing passes and chipping away at that lead," she said. "It was still early enough to fight back."
Senior defensive specialist Meaghan Stertzer's solid serving and senior libero Jess Fellows' diving saves and passes helped the Huskies crawl back and eventually tie the game at 13-13. From then on the Huskies took a narrow lead and held onto it to take the second set 25-19.
Seniors Tori Janowski and Taylor Nelson, who both play setter and outside hitter, put out big efforts in kills and digs to give the Huskies a quick lead of 10-5 in the third set. The Huskies eventually took it 25-15.
Senior outside hitter Marilyn Peizer, a team-leader in kills and digs, finally took off in the fourth set after unloading an arsenal of kills. Good Counsel brought the score close by the match's end when they had 18 points to Flint Hill's 21, but it wasn't enough to stop the Huskies' 4-1 run. Peizer iced the championship with a final kill, putting her total for the night at 15.
Janowski led the entire match with 16 kills. Nelson led the team in digs for the night with 28. Stertzer served perfectly at 22 for 22 with two aces.
The defending state champion Huskies move on to the state tournament tomorrow night at home.
