by Andrew Wasik ’13

The Lady Warriors celebrate their third consecutive state championship after another 3-0 win over Arundel.

The Lady Warriors defeated a tough Arundel team 3-0 thus completing a “three-peat” of state championships. Over the past three seasons the volleyball team has gone an incredible 57-0 under head coach Brian McCarty.

Senior Alex Holston, who had a game-high 25 kills, has led the way the past three years and continued her strong leadership throughout the championship game played on November 19 at Ritchie Coliseum. “It feels really good just knowing that all of our hard work and dedication has paid off and we have finally completed our goal of winning the state championship again,” said Holston.

Holston was named the team’s Most Valuable Player for the 2012 season, recording 365 kills, 153 digs and 47 blocks. Holsten led the team in all three categories.

Towards the end of the first set, the Lady Warriors were down 25-24 to Arundel, a team that has had their playoff hopes abrubtly halted by Sherwood the past two years. On the brink of losing the first set, a clutch kill by Holston tied up the score and the team rallied to take the next two points to win the critical first set 27-25.

The demoralizing turn-around seemed to affect the Arundel girls and they were never able  to recover, losing the next two sets 25-14 and 25-13. In the third set, the Arundel girls took a quick lead but senior Katie Russell stepped up and had two big kills to turn the momentum back in the Lady Warriors’ favor.

“I just wanted to do what I could to help my team, I just really wanted to win,” said Russell. “Arundel was a good team and I just wanted to step it up.”

The team had more pressure this season to win it all than they ever have before. They were picked early on as the season favorites and are known around the state as a powerhouse after having gone undefeated the past two seasons and winning states for what is now the third time in a row. “We put a lot of pressure on our younger girls, telling them that we had done it the two years before and now it’s our mission to three-peat,” said Holston.

After losing a few  starters from last year, the team needed other players to step up and they did so in a big way. Senior Christy Mempin, who had a few clutch serves in all the game, was a crucial part of the team all season. “Last year I was happy to win, but this year it felt even better because now I could finally play with the starters. I was crying tears of joy at the end,” said Mempin.

The Lady Warriors suffered a loss when senior Dominique Parker injured her ankle towards the end of the season and was unable to play. Parker was a large part of the team this season, recording 41 kills, nine digs and five blocks. But Parker still celebrated on the court with her team after the win and was able to go out with the other captains to receive the trophy. “It feels amazing,” she said. “Alex and I have been talking about it since the summer and we decided that we had to do it again or we couldn’t show our faces around the school. There was no not-win option.”