by Maddie Tringone ‘22

Senior outside hitter Sophia Kluska hits over two Wootton blockers in the inaugural County Championship.  Photographed by Maddie Tringone ’22

Girls volleyball finished the regular season with a 14-0 record and so did Wootton’s team. Both teams advanced to playoffs with a first round bye, but first they met on November 2 to decide the MCPS County Championship. In a contest worthy of the two best teams in the county, the match swung back and forth until Wootton made a few final big plays to win the tiebreaker set and the match (25-20, 23-25, 25-22, 18-25, 14-16).

The Warriors are led by senior outside hitter Sophia Kluska (committed D1 to Charleston Southern University), senior middle-hitter Gwen Eustace (committed D3 to Salisbury University), and senior middle blocker Morgan Conner.

The match against Wootton was back and forth from the very start. Sherwood built a lead after multiple blocks and massive hits by Eustace, and the set was finished 25-20 with a hit by Kluska that seemed to shake the gym. The second set was full of more momentum swings, which ended in Sherwood falling just short of clutching another set by a score of 23-25.

Kluska helped win in the third set with a major hit, leading Sherwood confidently into set 4. Sherwood missed the opportunity to win the match, and the many mistakes they made caused them to be unable to crawl out of the hole they dug themselves and the Warriors lost the set 18-25. Heading into deciding tie-breaker set 5, the pressure was on because it’s only to 15. Conner tied the game up 10-10 but things turned Wootton’s way in the end, who won 16-14 and were crowned county champions

The county championship has no effect on seedings for the playoffs, but the first loss of the season was a wake up call. “The team should have focused more on ourselves and playing our game instead of worrying about our opponents,” said Kluska.

Over the course of the whole season Sherwood had only lost a total of 3 sets, whereas Wootton had lost 6. Conner says that Sherwood only “had about 4 competitive games all season and despite our record, we still have a long road ahead of us in playoffs.”

During the regular season Sherwood’s most intense games were against Northwest, Urbana, and Quince Orchard. Even during these games, the girls were able to stay focused and use their team dynamic to communicate and pull off 14 wins. “Over the four years I have played for Sherwood, we have not had a team that works as well together as we do this season,” said Eustace.

After the loss against Wootton, the team headed to practice to make some adjustments before their first playoff game this past Monday against Einstein, who the Warriors annihilated in the regular season.

Sherwood is expected to be regional champions and then will test themselves against volleyball teams from outside Montgomery County.