Volleyball: Cougars Advance to Concorde District Final

The prospect of reaching the Concorde District Tournament final game looked grim for the Oakton High Cougars after the first set against Westfield in the semifinals.

The Cougars struggled to not only notch points for themselves, but to not commit errors that provided the Bulldogs with a formidable lead to start the first set. The Bulldogs won the set 25-8, at one point scoring 10 plays in a row.

"At one point in the game I said to them, 'OK, just get it all out now. We're not going to come back in this game, but make these mistakes now and let's move on to the next one,'" said Oakton coach Steve Drumm, who was named Coach of the Year for the Concorde District.

In the break between the first and second set, something clicked for the Cougars. They came back to win three sets in a row — 25-21, 25-19 and 25-14 — to knock Westfield out of the tournament and advance themselves to the Concorde District finals for the first time in 12 years.

Heading into the game, Oakton sought vengeance, as the Bulldogs are the only Concorde District team to have beaten them in the regular season. The first match was a five-set battle the Cougars fell just short of winning.

After that match, Drumm felt the Cougars were the better team and his coaching staff needed to find ways to take the win in the semifinals.

"I told the Westfield coach to tell his libero that our entire strategy was about not serving her. She's fantastic," Drumm said. "We maybe served her four or five times the whole match, and I'm sure she was frustrated. It's those little things we as a coach staff looked for to give ourselves the advantage, and I think it made a difference."

Oakton will face Chantilly in the title match 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Centreville.

"Making it to the district finals isn't the mountaintop. Getting to the district finals is awesome and we haven't done that in years, but we want more than that. We want that title," Drumm said.

By reaching the finals, the Cougars are automatically berthed into the Northern Region tournament, which begins Monday.