After four years, Vikings give Bruins first Cardinal District loss

By Dave Utnik

Published: September 23, 2008

Paola Perez stood behind the service line and turned a volleyball slowly in her hands Tuesday night, briefly savoring a moment that has been four years in the making.
A few feet away on the front row, with the Woodbridge Vikings just one point away from perhaps the most meaningful regular season victory in the program’s history, senior captain Theresa McElroy leaned toward teammate Alexandra Petock and whispered the words every member of this varsity team has longed to hear.
“Four years and we finally got it,” McElroy said.
Then she delivered the decisive kill herself with a spike that sliced over the left end of the net and struck the floor just inside the baseline to clinch a 25-8, 25-16, 24-26, 25-20 victory over Forest Park.
“All of us on the team have been gunning for this all year,” McElroy said after the Vikings be-came the first team to defeat the Bruins in a Cardinal District match. “The whole school came out to support us because everybody knows that we really wanted this.”
The Vikings (6-2, 2-0) have anticipated a night like this since McElroy arrived on the varsity team as a freshman. Virtually the entire senior class has played together since the sixth grade and they’d targeted 2008 as their season to create magic.
On Tuesday, they did and established themselves as the top team in the Cardinal District along the way.
“We’re so excited to finally beat Forest Park,” said senior libero Casey Burdette, who had 22 back-row digs. “I think we all wanted nothing to drop. We just really wanted it.”
Not that the visiting Bruins didn’t. It’s just that for the first time since Forest Park opened its doors in 2000, the Bruins (1-4, 0-1) faced a county team with more experience, more depth and more desire.
McElroy had a team-high 10 kills and 12 digs, Kelly Morrissey finished with six kills and 13 digs and middle hitter Katie Maksanty came through with seven kills and six blocks, while Petock had 11 digs and Maura Stackley seven.
“They were together, they were a team and they dug everything we put over,” first-year Bruins coach Jonathan Bukva said. “You could tell they’ve played together a long time.”
Forest Park, meanwhile, is still searching for team chemistry. There is talent all over the court, especially at outside hitter and middle blocker, where Rachael Goss and Kellie Goss combined for 22 kills and 27 digs. Rookie libero Jordan Remington showed flashes of magnificence too with 16 digs. But there are still some issues to sort through.
“We’re waiting to play good ball. We haven’t done it yet,” Bukva said. “The good thing about the Cardinal District is it’s the tournament that matters. This loss right now is horrible, but I think we’ll bounce back at our place. As long as we’re playing solidly at the end of October is what mat-ters.”
For Woodbridge, playing well in October is a distant goal that had nothing to do with Tuesday’s performance, which also featured six kills from Kelsey Churchill.
The postseason matters to the Vikings, too, but they have been obsessed with beating Forest Park for so long that finally accomplishing that feat was almost as meaningful as claiming a district banner.
“There was a lot of anticipation. All through school we couldn’t wait,” Burdette said. “The whole time we just wanted to play and win.”
And when they did, they leapt together in a group hug then, one-by-one, ducked their heads to run between two rows of giddy students who’d spilled out of the bleachers to celebrate with them.
“I feel like this is the closest team we’ve ever had,” McElroy said. “We all get along really well and I think it shows on the court.”