Chantilly Gets Another Shot at Robinson

When the No. 3 Chantilly girls travel to top-ranked Robinson tomorrow, it will be a rematch of last year's double overtime region semifinal.

Robinson won that matchup, 2-1, completing a three-game season sweep of the Chargers, but Chantilly might have built most of the momentum in that final meeting.

"The first time we played them, we just had a good first half and put three goals in," Robinson Coach Jim Rike said. "Then, every time after that, we played them you could just see them getting better and better and better."

The defending Virginia AAA state champion Rams (5-0-1) boast one of the area's strongest attacks in senior forward LeighAnne Baxter (two goals), junior forward Audrey Barry (two goals), freshman midfielder Barbara Platenberg (five goals) and senior midfielder Annie Hovland (five goals).

Entering yesterday's game against Fairfax, Chantilly (5-0-1) has outscored its opponents 20-2 on the strength of All-Met Cortlyn Bristol and Katie Menzie, both midfielders.

William & Mary-bound Bristol, with a strong leg and accuracy from long distance, has scored seven goals while Menzie, a James Madison-bound player with two goals and three assists, has used her foot skills to organize Chantilly's well-balanced attack.

"We're going to have to put pressure on their defense and we're going to have to control the midfield," Chantilly Coach Melissa Bibbee said. "Robinson [tomorrow] is going to be the measuring stick for us to let us know where we are."

McLean Learns Its Lesson

In the opening two weeks of the season, the McLean boys hosted a pair of the area's top teams: No. 6 Wakefield and fourth-ranked Westfield. And against two of the area's most dangerous offensive teams, the results were strikingly similar.

The Highlanders allowed nine goals in those two losses, falling 4-2 to Wakefield and 5-2 to Westfield. Although McLean (5-2) did not appear ready for the upper echelon of the Northern Region, players and coaches said the two games were critical lessons for a team in need of some early schooling.

"When we lost to those two teams, we were ready to collect ourselves and figure out what was going on with," the defense, junior defender Drew Hunt said. "The rest of the team was doing fine, keeping the ball and playing well up top. In the back we needed to sort ourselves out."

Following some position changes and extra attention devoted to properly working a flat-back four defensive formation, McLean faced its next big test a week after the Westfield loss, traveling to Ashburn to face No. 5 Stone Bridge on March 30.

The result was dramatically different.

Trailing 1-0 late in the game, McLean scored twice in the final 13 minutes to upset the defending Northern Region champion and hand the Bulldogs their first regular season loss since April 27, 2007.

The win put McLean on a list of contenders in the wide-open Northern Region race, Hunt said.

"I feel like later on we're going to think of that as the turning point to our season," Hunt said. "After we won against Stone Bridge we realized we had a caliber team to beat the top-tier teams in the region."

Williams Faces Old Squad

Lindsey Heigh's game-winner three minutes into overtime gave W.T. Woodson a 2-1 victory over No. 8 Centreville on April 1 in reigning All-Met Coach of the Year Warren Williams's return to where he previously coached.

In nine years, Williams led Centreville to five district titles, two region titles and four state tournament berths as he posted a 113-38-12 record.

"It was bittersweet," Williams said. "They wanted to make my return a good one, which was exactly what they did."