Volleyball: Knights Win A First for Koger

BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. – The Knights last night defeated Hagerstown Community College in straight sets – 26-24, 25-23, 28-26 – in front of a home crowd at the CCBC Essex Wellness & Athletics Center.

When the final whistle sounded, Knights' head coach Geoffrey Koger was overly excited for the victory. Was it because his team just snapped a three-game skid? Sure.

But what had Koger more thrilled was the fact that it was the first time in his 13 seasons at Essex that any of his teams had won against the Hawks.

"It felt awesome," Koger said. "It's been a long, long time. The closest we'd ever come was when we were still playing best of three and we took one set, and that was a long time ago."

The Knights (8-12, 3-6 Maryland Juco) played arguably their best game of the season, and this despite being without Sabrina Bradford (Hereford), one of their sophomore captains, who was recovering from injury.

"Watching them play, I saw them as a team and it was the best I've ever seen them play," Bradford said. "Being able to see that from the outside was so amazing. I was so excited for them."

Sophomore Ann Benzinger (Dulaney) had a game-high 13 kills (.104 kill%), two service aces and 15 digs.

"It was awesome," Benzinger said about giving her coach his first win against the Hawks. "We were all very excited for him."

Freshman Annette Thrappas (Carver) was second on the team with seven kills (.107 kill%) and added 11 digs and a service ace.

The Knights close out their home slate on Tuesday against Chesapeake College. Game time is scheduled for 6 p.m.