An Arlington eighth grader brought the fight for boys volleyball to last week’s School Board meeting.
Sam Luchessi, a student at Kenmore Middle School, pressed Board members to include funding in their fiscal year 2027 budget so the sport could be added at the high-school level. The Arlington school system already funds girls volleyball, with competition in the fall.
Constrained finances make it less likely Arlington Public Schools will add new high-school sports in the coming school year.
Left unfunded under Superintendent Francisco Durán’s $856 million proposed fiscal year 2027 school budget are staff proposals to add boys volleyball and girls flag football to athletic programming.
The 2025 season was again a success, as usual, for the Bishop O’Connell Knights. But the girls high-school volleyball team fell short in its quest for postseason tournament championships.
O’Connell finished with a 22-3 overall record and advanced as far as the semifinals in both the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference and Division I state private-school tournaments.
Today (Friday) is the last day to submit feedback on planned upgrades to the volleyball court, playground and paths at Doctor’s Run Park.
The county is planning to resurface the existing volleyball court in the park, located at 1301 S. George Mason Drive in the Douglas Park neighborhood.
Two girls fall teams at Yorktown High School enjoyed success in recent Liberty District tournaments, with each recording upsets along the way.
The second-seeded Patriots’ field hockey squad won the district title for a fifth straight time, with the third-seed volleyball unit finishing second in its tournament.
The standout fall season enjoyed by multiple Bishop O’Connell High School sports teams was highlighted when four different head coaches for the private-school Knights athletic program received Coach of the Year accolades.
Earning Washington Catholic Athletic Conference Coach of the Year honors were Megan Sullivan for girls field hockey, Chris Jennings for boys soccer and Alerto Starace for girls soccer. Mehdi El Alaoui was the Division I state Coach of the Year for girls volleyball.
It’s not unusual for individuals from a team that won a state championship to receive significant postseason accolades.
So it went for the Bishop O’Connell Knights girls high-school volleyball team, which won this fall’s Division I private-school state crown. Five players from that squad recently were chosen to all-state teams.
In front of a big home crowd, the Marymount University Saints women’s volleyball team recently won a third- straight Atlantic East Conference tournament championship.
The top-seeded Saints were 2-0 in the tourney, defeating Gwynedd Mercy University in the semifinals, then Neuman University in the title match, each by 3-0 scores.
It was a busy afternoon, with Bishop O’Connell High School girls teams playing in three different state-tournament contests at home last Tuesday (Nov. 5).
In the end, O’Connell teams won all three — soccer, field hockey and volleyball — to advance in the Division I private-school state competitions.
Four beach volleyball courts are now open in Crystal City as part of Club Volo National Landing, a new temporary recreational site at 223 23rd Street S.
The site is the result of an partnership between developer JBG Smith and Baltimore-based social sports company Volo Sports. The developer is set to construct high rise apartment buildings at the address, but has delayed construction until costs and interest rates settle.
Temporary pickleball and beach volleyball courts could be coming to Crystal City as plans to build two apartment towers face significant delays.
A pair of 30-story apartment buildings are ultimately expected to bring 1,439 residential units and over 22,000 square feet of retail to 223 23rd Street S. and 2250 Crystal Drive. But the project approved in early 2023 won’t be getting off the ground until “construction costs and interest rates normalize” — likely next year at the earliest, developer JBG Smith told ARLnow.
For the first time in three decades, two Marymount University teams won their conference titles on the same day with both earning a trip to their respective NCAA tournaments.
On Saturday, Nov. 5, Marymount’s women’s volleyball team and the men’s soccer team each won the NCAA Division III Atlantic East Conference championship.
