Hayfield’s volleyball team had been lulled to sleep by a series of easy wins. But, with its Patriot District opener against the defending district champions Monday night, the Hawks found themselves hitting the snooze button and hitting it hard.
With 3-0 wins over South Lakes, West Potomac, Wakefield and Marshall in the past two weeks, Hayfield hadn’t lost a game since Sept. 8. Couple that with the fact that Hayfield started four sophomores, one junior and one senior Monday night at West Springfield, and it’s not hard to see why the Hawks struggled against the Spartans.
“We’ve played some teams that haven’t challenged us, but we finally had to step up our game,” said Hayfield coach Amy Trimble, whose team suffered a 3-0 loss. “They weren’t prepared for that, and we didn’t know how to take another team off of its game, especially one of such a high caliber.”
Trimble would’ve liked to have seen her team place some offensive attacks differently, mainly to take West Springfield out of its comfort zone. Still, Trimble’s team — “hyped up,” according to the coach — repeatedly hit balls that landed well out of bounds.
“We just were unsure of ourselves and the situations,” said Trimble, whose team dropped to 6-2 overall, 0-1 in the Patriot District. “I think we were more hyped up, which caused our power to be out of the gym on several hits, especially our serves.”
But on the positive side, the loss to West Springfield only opened district play for the Hawks. Hayfield still has six important matches to refocus and settle down.
“They didn’t play bad, they just finally played a hard team,” said Trimble, whose Hawks will benefit from nine days of rest before hosting T.C. Williams on Oct. 1. “We have a good team. We have a young team still, and we’re now getting into the hard part of our schedule so that’s what’s going to matter.”