Contact: Jenni Brockman
Telephone: 804-443-3357 (w)
Fax: 804-443-6781
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Second-year Coach, Team Enjoy Winning Season
St. Margaret’s junior varsity volleyball head coach Jennifer Gura is overjoyed. To her, winning isn’t everything but improving—and having fun—is. Her team, with a record of 6 wins and 2 losses, has enjoyed both this fall.
The Scotties have tallied wins over Trinity Episcopal (2-1), St. Anne’s-Belfield (2-1), Blessed Sacrament-Huguenot (2-1), St. Catherine’s (2-0), and Collegiate (2-0), giving them an outstanding shot to match the 8-2 overall record set by the 1998 team. After a disappointing 0-2 loss to Blessed Sacrement-Huguenot on Tuesday, Coach Gura’s troops are determined to rebound at home against Collegiate today (Friday, October 22).
Sophomore Maryama Tagoe positions herself for a volley in game 2 on Friday in Ball Memorial Gymnasium.
At 5-3 less than 115 pounds, Coach Gura sits like a child with two feet ably tucked beneath her as she watches the game intently from the sidelines. "This is your chance to shine," she told players who stayed an extra half hour at practice Thursday. "Go out and show everyone how hard you’ve worked—show them what you can do."
Play begins.
Her young players make mistakes.
"Great job! Come on [player’s name], you can do it!," Gura yells emphatically.
The tempo of play quickens. One-by-one players instill confidence in themselves and, slowly, the team coalesces. Anne Czechanski, the only returning player from last year, and Maryama Tagoe are the offensive leaders. Lisa Magness and Angela Wang also make key plays.
Coach Gura can no longer remain seated. She paces back and forth in front of the SMS bench as the referee makes eye contact in a silent request for her to sit down. At this point, Coach Gura’s overachievers lead Collegiate 8-2 though one could not determine that from the players' demeanor: all eyes are intense, focused on the white leather ball as it moves across the net. Paige Winebrenner, a freshman day student from Tappahannock, serves a strong series and SMS wins the first game in the best-of-three-game contest by a score of 15-4.
St. Margaret’s continued its blistering service attack in game 2. Collegiate committed numerous service return errors, helping the Scotties establish a 10-1 lead.
Freshman Sarah Phillips, after scoring the first 5 points of the game, helped her classmate Alex Burdette and eighth grader Martha Anne Houston, of Houston, TX, hold the big lead. Playing with confidence, the young Scotties gave up only three additional points en route to winning the second game 15-4.
St. Margaret's 1999 Junior Varsity Volleyball Team - (l. to .r, back row) Head Coach Jennifer Gura, Ashley Sanderson, Alex Burdette, Paige Winebrenner, Martha Anne Houston, Maryama Tagoe, Sarah Phillips; (l. to r., front) Lisa Magness, Anne Czechanski, and Angela Wang.
With the euphoria of the moment and the satisfaction of a thrilling win fresh in their minds, Coach Gura told her players to enjoy the moment. "They’ve come such a long way," she said as the nine girls celebrated with their coach in giddy fashion.
Friday’s game didn’t have the drama of game six of the Mets-versus-Braves National League Championship Series nor was it attended by frenetic fans like those associated with Nascar racing but, for those present, that didn’t seem to matter. In the end, with all its special moments, the game was what MasterCard calls in its commercials: "Priceless."
Coach Gura, the young ladies on this year’s team, and the parents who were there cheering for their daughters all would agree.
The Scotties final game will be against Trinity Episcopal at home this Thursday (10/28) at 4:00 PM, followed by the varsity teams at 5:00 PM.
