In 3A, Hawks dig a path to states

Whitney tallies 31, River Hill knocks off No. 1 Centennial

For most of the season, River Hill libero Laura Whitney hasn't been in the spotlight. Overshadowed by the Hawks' multifaceted offense, her job often appears less glamorous as she routinely dives across the court to dig shot after shot.

On Friday, though, in the Maryland 3A East region final against top-ranked Centennial, Whitney made everyone take notice as she raced across the court to turn each fierce kill attempt from the powerful Centennial hitter into a passable ball. By night's end, Whitney racked up a staggering 31 digs to lead visiting River Hill over Centennial, 24-26, 25-17, 25-15, 28-26.

"This really was her match," Hawks Coach Sybil Modispacher said of Whitney. "She was bringing up these beautiful passes, and this win really was a big, big tribute to Laura because she was the reason we were able to continue to run our offense against them."

With Whitney in the back row, the Hawks' offense went to work. Outside hitters Sarah Okey (17 kills), Megan Rosburg (15) and Sarah Gordon (12) helped keep the points flowing. For River Hill (18-2), which moved up to 3A classification this year, the win over the rival defending 3A champion Eagles (17-2) had particularly special meaning.

"We were in 2A for the past two years that I was on varsity," said Whitney, a senior. "We always played good teams in the region finals but never a team like Centennial. We were so fired up after losing to them in the regular season, and getting to states by beating them means a lot to us."

Big run keys Broadneck

Trailing 13-2 in the fourth game of the 4A East region final, Broadneck Coach Scott Graf called a timeout and reminded his team it was still in control of the match if it wanted to be. Up 2-1, the two-time defending 4A champion Bruins were thinking too much and committing too many unforced errors, Graf said.

"We'd all made at least one mistake in that run they had," outside hitter Adrienne Gebele said. "We just needed to find a way to keep playing and finding ways to get points. We just let down on ourselves and needed to fix it."

Immediately after the timeout, middle hitter Danielle Jordan hit off a Severna Park block to start a 10-point run with setter Shelby Greene serving that brought the visiting Bruins roaring back en route to a 21-25, 25-23, 25-19, 25-21 win.

Broadneck (15-2) clinched its 10th consecutive trip to the state tournament and also redeemed itself for a regular season loss to Severna Park (16-3) that cost the Bruins the county title and top seed in the region.

"We came in here wanting to get that match back from them as much as possible," said Greene, one of nine seniors.

Northern wins 3A South

Sophomore middle blocker Jasmine Desilva had 14 kills to help propel Northern over Southern Maryland Athletic Conference rival Huntingtown, 24-26, 25-16, 16-25, 25-18, 15-11, to capture its second consecutive 3A South title. . . . In the 3A West, Damascus swept South Hagerstown, 25-18, 25-16, 25-17. . . . Magruder won its second consecutive 4A West crown by beating Gaithersburg, 25-18, 25-20, 25-19. . . . Marriotts Ridge defeated Glenelg, 25-15, 25-16, 13-25, 25-21, to take the 2A South crown. . . . In the 2A West, Francis Scott Key topped defending 1A champion Poolesville, 27-29, 26-24, 25-21, 25-23.