Winning four state championships, as the Langley Saxons have now done, puts the girls team among rarified company in Virginia High School League (VHSL) volleyball competition.
Langley won its fourth overall Va. crown and second in a row Saturday (Nov. 23) at the Siegel Center in Richmond by edging the Chantilly Chargers, 3-2, in a seesaw Class 6 state-tournament title match.
Langley rallied from an 8-4 deficit to clinch the deciding fifth set, 15-13.
The Saxons (28-2) are one of just four teams to win consecutive titles at the VHSL’s largest enrollment level, and the first to do so since Kellam won three straight from 2010-12.
“We thought we had a chance, but it’s very hard to win two in a row,” Langley coach Susan Shifflett told FFXnow. “They did it.”
Kellam has the most state titles at the highest (Class 6 and its predecessor AAA) student-enrollment sizes, with Langley (2013, 2017 , 2023 and 2024) and Cox (1996, 1999, 2001, 2004) at four each.
Winning the title against Chantilly (24-3-2) was especially hard. Just a few days, earlier Langley lost to Chantilly, 3-1, in the championship match of the 6D North Region tournament.
In the state final, Langley fell in the hole, losing the first set 25-21. The set had six ties and five lead changes.
Langley bounced back to win the next two sets, 25-23 and 25-15, but Chantilly rebounded to take the fourth, 25-14.
The second set had six ties and three lead changes, the last when a 4-0 Langley run gave the Saxons the lead for good. A 7-0 Langley run earlier in the set gave the Saxons a 12-10 lead.
“That was a big set to win. We didn’t want to fall behind by two sets,” Shifflett said.
Langley took control of the third set with an 8-1 run, then Chantilly did the same in the fourth with a 6-0 start.
Trailing 8-4 in that fifth set, a 9-0 Langley run gave the Saxons the lead for good at 13-8. That set, and the state championship, was won on a kill by freshman Rujuta Singh, her 14th kill of the match.
“I asked my assistant coaches if we should call a timeout when we were behind 8-4, but they said no, they have this,” Shifflett said.
During the 9-0 run, senior Ana Toumazatos had three aces and served for all nine points, Singh had two kills and senior Amber Smith had a big block.
For the match, Toumazatos had 21 kills. Also for Langley, senior Vivian Nitowski had 10 kills, senior Ava Barnett-McKenzie had three, senior Hanna Herbolsheimer two, junior Claire Mo had two kills and led the team in assists. Smith had an ace, with junior Hailey Park contributing in in a number of ways.
“We had to adjust to how they [Chantilly] blocked in the match and that gave Vivian more opportunities to get kills, and she came through,” Shifflett said. “So many things happened in this match, it was back and forth, and I told our players I was going to have to watch the tape to remember it all.”
Langley was 3-0 in the state tourney, with all three matches on the road. The Saxons defeated Colgan, 3-1, in the first round ,and West Springfield, 3-0, in the semifinals. Langley trailed by different margins in a number of those sets.
“Our players had that ability all season of not getting too high or low during matches,” Shifflett said.
Chantilly, the 2018 state champion, was 2-1 in the state tournament, defeating Patriot, 3-0, in the first round and Alexandria City, 3-2, in the semifinals.
In the state final for Chantilly, senior hitter Mimi Mambu had 26 kills and two aces. She had more than 300 kills this season. Erin Green had 10 kills, Julia Horan had six kills and Skyler Riley also had six kills. Gabrielle Nelson had one kill.
Chantilly and Langley have met four times in region and state tournaments the last three seasons, with each winning twice.
