The Falcons have wrapped up their regular season, entering playoffs with a 15-7 record, ranking third in the Potomac district. Riverside and Independence are Briar Woods’ main competition, as Riverside ranks first and Independence ranks second in the district. The Falcons’ effort on and off the court has been evident throughout the season, as they keep their momentum and energy high no matter the amount of support from home or how challenging their opponent is. If they continue to play with this mindset into the playoffs, the odds could be in their favor.
“It’s a long season so [there are] a lot of ups and downs with the emotions, but the main thing is [that] we always try to be open and honest with each other. I would love for the season to continue, but I’m ready for tournament play,” stated Head Coach Riggio.
Briar Woods went up against the Heritage Pride on Monday, Oct. 7, beating them 3-0 and improving their record to 12-5. The team was led by standout performances from senior middle hitter Cece Brown, who had 10 kills and a .529 hitting percentage, and junior setter Sierra Smith, who tallied 31 assists. The Falcons’ relentless serving kept Heritage off balance, with junior libero Molly Gardner contributing 17 digs to keep the defense steady.
Junior middle hitter Michelle Herbert expresses her opinion on the team’s performance against Heritage, stating, “it was a really solid game. There were some things that we could have done cleaner, like covering needs to get better. We had some really good hits, but our main takeaways were that we needed to run slides and cover better, so now we’ve been focusing on that in practice.”
The Falcons’ faced Riverside the day after their 3-0 win against Heritage, but struggled to recreate that success, falling 3-0 in the match on Tuesday, Oct. 8. The Rams’ potent offense proved to be too much for Briar Woods’ defense to handle. Despite solid performances from senior outside hitter Taylor Hansen, who registered 11 kills, and the team’s five total blocks, Briar Woods could not find a rhythm. The loss highlighted their struggle with consistency in passing and serve-receive, as Riverside maintained control throughout the match.
“Our first set was very good, because we were winning by a good amount, but we let up after that second set, and some unforced errors cost us. They’re a strong team, but I think we should’ve taken at least one set, because we were very close in that first set to fighting back,” explained Herbert.
Going into their game against the Tigers on a three-game win streak, the Falcons ran into some trouble in their game against Independence on Wednesday, Oct. 23, losing the match 3-0. Similar to their first game against the Tigers, Independence had the Falcons on their heels by playing aggressive in all aspects, including strong serves and a high rate of successful blocks. Briar Woods’ best chance to even the playing field came in the second set, highlighted by Hansen who recorded 12 kills throughout the match, though the Falcons ultimately came up short.
Coach Riggio shares his take on the Falcons’ game against the Tigers, saying, “in tonight’s game, we served consistently and we had great moments of passing well. Independence did a great job at serving aggressively right off the bat, so that caught us off-guard for the first set, and then they had momentum the entire match, so we just couldn’t play catch up. We just have to take tonight’s loss, learn from it and then be ready for tournament play.”
Herbert talks about her favorite memory from the season, mentioning, “we have this thing called dare night where we have a list of dares that we have to complete. One of them is asking for somebody’s snap. We had to ride the Riverside Ram and take a photo, grab the ice cream cone by the ice cream, use a pickup line on somebody, propose. You have an hour or an hour and a half to go around Ashburn and do all these dares. That was one of the best things we did for the beginning of the season, because it was really late when it was over, and it was really fun team bonding because we went to IHOP afterwards.”
Coach Riggio expresses his goals for the team going into playoffs, stating, “anything can happen in tournament games. The main thing is that the team has to understand losses and that they happen, and it’s how you respond to losses. Some of our strong points for this season are our defense and our serve receive, which we rely on. We’ve had moments where it has been strong, and some moments where it was not, but we have to learn from that and dominate, because in high school, it’s pretty much a serve receive game.”
