The crowd watched with bated breath as senior Fiona McDermott delivered an ace halfway through the third quarter to stop a 4–0 run by Georgetown Visitation and extend GDS’ lead to 16–6.
GDS went on to win their fourth straight District of Columbia State Athletic Association (DCSAA) Championship in straight sets on Nov. 7.
GDS was seeded first and Visitation was seeded tenth in the DCSAA’s playoff format, which uses a points system to determine where a team finishes in the standings and assigns more points to some games than others. Only games against D.C. teams count for points. In the regular season, GDS beat Visitation 3–0. The Hoppers also finished first in the Independent School League (ISL) AA division in the regular season, and Visitation finished right behind them in second place.
In the first set, Visitation served first, but the ball went out of bounds, handing GDS the first point. The game got off to a fast start, as both teams traded points and made blocks and saves to rally back and forth.
As the game progressed, GDS began settling into their rhythm offensively. Junior Caycee Chhum sparked the offensive run, setting up many opportunities for her teammates, who capitalized on those opportunities and scored. In particular, juniors Zora Dimbo and Alexa Telly had some unreturnable hits, and their offensive rhythm, combined with the Hoppers’ lockdown defense, allowed GDS to build a comfortable lead. Every time Visitation seemed to be gaining momentum, GDS stopped their run. GDS ultimately won the first set, 25–15.
In the second set, GDS raced off to a 6–0 lead. Visitation claimed the next two points despite a remarkable diving save from Telly but handed the next two points to GDS after hitting the ball directly in the net twice, giving GDS an 8–2 lead. But Visitation outlasted GDS in the subsequent rallies, scoring four more points, 8–6.
Missed serves and unreturned hits impacted both teams in the second set. Visitation trailed GDS closely throughout the set, but ultimately GDS won 25–19.
Head coach Brandon Wiest summed up GDS’ mindset in close situations: “They are just very even-keeled,” he said. “They win one point, we win two.”
Going into the game, Wiest said he knew GDS had to use their depth to wear down Visitation. “Our game plan was really on trying to slow them down as much as possible and to stay offensively on our side as aggressive as possible,” he said. “We felt we had an advantage, kind of, with the quantity of great attackers, so we didn’t want to give any of that back to the other team. We didn’t want to be tipping the ball back to Visitation. We wanted to be taking big swings.”
In the third set, GDS opened with a 4–0 run and maintained a comfortable lead throughout the set. Wiest said the team knew from experience not to let up the pressure, despite having a large lead. “They’ve seen a lot of high-pressure situations before and a lot of teams that have fought really hard and come back against us,” he said. “Just knowing that we might be up by a lot, but this is a great team on the other side of the net. If we take our foot off the gas, something crazy could happen.”
GDS did not take their foot off the gas as they closed out the third set. But Visitation scored four straight points, bringing the score from 16–2 to 16–6. Finally, McDermott made a resounding hit that announced an end to Visitation’s momentum, followed by a perfectly timed block by senior Tessa Fergusson and a diving save by Telly.
GDS extended the lead to 18–6 with sharp hits and aggressive offense that wore Visitation down. As the third set came to a close, Visitation held their own in several long rallies, scoring a few points, but they were not able to beat GDS’ lead. GDS ultimately won the third set, 25–11, and the championship in straight sets.
Dimbo was named the most valuable player. “I was just telling myself to stay calm,” Dimbo said. “I knew it was going to be a competitive opponent. We haven’t played that many competitive opponents this year. I haven’t played Visitation because I’ve been sick, but I was locked in going into this. I was making sure that I was focused.”
After graduating nine seniors, GDS lost key leadership from the last several years’ DCSAA championships. However, McDermott explained that previous seniors set a standard and prepared the current seniors to teach others. “I learned a lot from the seniors last year, and when they graduated, we had to pick up the slack and turn into those seniors for the underclassmen.”
“This team has gone through some really hard times,” Dimbo said. “Last year we lost in the ISL finals; the year before that we lost in the ISL finals,” Dimbo said. On Oct. 30, the team won their first ISL AA tournament. She told the Bit she thought the team was successful because of their focus on “staying disciplined and trusting ourselves that we could make it this far.”
“It was definitely hard because we played three back-to-back-to-back games,” Telly said. The team played in the quarterfinals against Banneker on Wednesday and the semifinals against Jackson-Reed on Thursday before winning the championship on Friday. She continued, “The work we put in practice collectively as a team and knowing my teammates around me really got me going.”
Wiest praised the group he had this year after winning the state championship. “Awesome group we had this year,” he said. “[I’m] really glad they could finish it off with a big exclamation point this year.”