After earning a bye for the quarterfinal round, the George Mason girls basketball team opened their postseason play on Tuesday night with a hard-fought, 54-39 win over Clarke County in the semifinals of the Bull Run District Tournament.

The Lady Mustangs put some early pressure on the Eagles from Clarke County, using their swarming full court press to control the tempo of the game. Freshman Bria Platenburg had a hot start to lead Mason on offense, dropping 6 of the team’s 13 first quarter points.

Behind the press and Platenburg’s scoring, Mason built an 11-3 lead midway through the first period before allowing Clarke to climb back in. Following a Clarke timeout, Mason lost some of the energy and momentum they had established at the start of the game and allowed the Eagles to erase the eight point lead. A pair of traveling calls and several turnovers kept the Mustangs from getting anything going on offense late in the quarter.

Clarke reduced the Mustang lead to 6 at the end of the first quarter, then managed to get a brief lead midway through the second on a pair of free throws from senior Misty Munson. However, after losing the lead, head coach LaBryan Thomas managed to rally his team again as they went on an 8-0 run following the Munson free throws. Junior point guard Chantal Thomas, who led the team with 8 assists on the night, hit a series of free throws and orchestrated the rejuvenating run for Mason.

“She [Thomas] started controlling the game” Said Coach Thomas. “She started looking inside more. Once we got our point guards distributing the ball, we kind of just took over.”

The Mustangs took a 26-19 lead into the locker room, and would not look back from there. Clarke committed four personal fouls in the first two minutes of the second half, preventing them from gaining any ground. Mason fell into foul trouble of their own early in the second half, but managed to keep a safe double-digit lead throughout the half by continuing to play an aggressive game on defense. Freshmen Lauren Kane and the aforementioned Platenburg had two thunderous blocks apiece to set the tone for the rest of the night. In addition to her defensive fireworks, Platenburg also had a pair of tough buckets inside to seal things in the fourth.

Bull Run Player of the Year hopefuls Nicole Mitchell and Kim Kenny had quiet nights offensively due to extra attention from Clarke defenders, but Coach Thomas felt the double teams they attracted let the rest of the team do what they wanted.

“Kim’s always going to be there; she’s always going to be up against the toughest inside player the other team has, and [Nicole’s] presence on the floor just keeps everything going. She settles everyone down, and with all that attention on her, it’s always going to free up somebody for us.”     

The Mustangs host the Bull Run District Tournament final on Thursday night where they will take on the number two seeded Strasburg Rams for the District title. Mason is already guaranteed a slot in the Region B tournament, though Coach Thomas and his team remain focused on the task at hand:

“Right now, Strasburg’s next. I’m not looking past Strasburg… We’re going to take it one game at a time.”

Reprinted here with permission from the Falls Church News Press.

Both the George Mason boy and girls swim teams continued their undefeated campaigns last Friday, dominating the field at the Region B Meet. The Mason boys were crowned Region champs for the second time in as many years while the girls squad won their first ever Region title. Clarke County, Goochland High School, Stonewall Jackson, and Strasburg, the four other teams that made the meet, were no match for the Mason swimmers; the boys finished 45 points ahead of runner-up Clarke County and the girls earned an astounding 177 points in the blowout. Mason swimmers compiled 44 new personal best times including 6 lowered team records.

In addition to the wide range of team accomplishments, sophomore Will Doty and freshman Carolyn Schmitt earned honors as the top swimmers in the Region, winning the Region B Swimmer of the Year awards. The Swimmer of the Year award is given to the boy and girl who compile the highest point totals at the Region Meet.

Mason head coach Jon-Michael Lemon along with assistant coach Janice Nette were given the Region B Coach of the Year award, an honor given to the coaches of the winning team at the meet.

At regionals, the girls 200 yard medley relay team consisting of freshmen Gen Jordan and the aforementioned Schmitt, and juniors Karen Hamill and Kelley Frank dropped their record mark to 2:02.69; 2.11 below their former clip. Junior Brandy Arredondo broke the team’s individual 200 yard freestyle record, lowering her time to 2:16.81.

Frank and Schmitt also set individual records in addition to their relay contributions. Frank re-set her own record in the 100 yard butterfly, dropping the time 2.05 seconds from her own former mark. Schmitt snatched one of Frank’s former records, topping Frank’s 100 yard breaststroke time of 1:16.34 with a blazing 1:15.16.

On the boys side, senior Carlos Clark broke a record formerly held by sophomore Sam Butler in the 200 yard individual medley. Clark lowered the top time from Butler’s 2:16.10 to 2:15.68.

Just a week prior to the Region B meet, the Mason swim teams competed in the Single A Invitational where they earned the honors of being named the top Single A team in Virginia. The chronology was a bit skewed with the State competition coming before the Regional one, but the Mason swimmers were able to rise to the occasion once again despite the unconventional scheduling.

The Mustangs’ season came to a close with the Regional Meet, though fifteen individuals will be moving on to the A/AA State meet. While the meet is mainly for AA schools, the Mason standouts who earned slots in certain events throughout the season by making state qualifying benchmark times will be able to use the meet to see where they stack up against some of the top swimmers in the state. Mason’s state qualifiers are Sam Butler, Will Doty, Carlos Clark, Sam Parker, Jack Cashin, Dane Warner, Karen Hamill, Kelley Frank, Gen Jordan, Carolyn Schmitt, Brandy Arredondo, Eva Estrada, Claire Constance, Leah Thirkill, and Rachel Hassan who made the meet as a diver.

Last Friday, the George Mason swim team packed their bags and left the school at 8.30 in the morning. After six hours on a bus, the team arrived in Bristol, Virginia. That night, the swim team cheered on Rachel Hassan at her diving meet. Hassan is the only Mason diver, but this didn’t seem to intimidate her as she dove off the board, posting state-qualifying scores.

The next morning, swimmers pumped themselves up for their first ever A-Invitational meet. Having the largest amount of support from their teammates, the swimmers were able to attain victory once more.

With 63 entries from Mason, 43 of those swimmers set personal records, bringing them up to the top and beating out the other eight teams, but especially Virginia High School. Without the 43 records that were set by Mason swimmers, Virginia High School would have stomped the competition beating out Mason by 62 points overall.

The girls and boys teams both won, bringing Mason to the top in the combined competition. “It is such a pleasure to see how this program has grown in such a short time and I’m so glad that we can say without question, that we are the Number One Single A team in the state of Virginia!” stated assistant coach, Janice Nette.  Three swimmers qualified for state: Kelley Frank, Sam Butler, and Karen Hamill.

Good luck to the Mason swimmers at the next meet, the regional meet, next Friday. Carolyn Schmitt, freshman, is so excited for the upcoming swim meet.  She exclaims, “Regionals are always fun, I’m really excited. I’m sure we’ll be winning, just like the past meets, no question about it.”

Last night the court at Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School was alive with the sound of buzzers, basket balls, and sneakers as Mason took on Potomac Falls High in the senior night game.  The game’s proceeds will be donated to the All Night Grad Party for this year’s class of 2009.  The first half started with all the seniors playing for Mason: Andrew Lieber, Tony Armstrong, Anthony Andrianarison, Josh Brew, and Joel Chandler.  This was their last game at Mason.  In the first half, a number of close range lay-ups were missed by the Mason team while Potomac had a few long distance passes though the scores remained relatively close with Potomac keeping a hold on the lead.  Most points scored by Mason were foul shots.  The first half ended with Potomac leading 31 to 24.

During half time, the cheerleaders performed and cheered Mason on, after the crowd was allowed to attempt to sink a half court shot for a dollar, which also raised money for the All Night Grad party which is held immediately following graduation each year for the senior class.  The second half was started by Josh Brew, Joel Chandler, Jordan Cheney, Michael Wolfe, and Anthony Andrianarison.  Although both teams played hard, Potomac kept up its lead with continuous shots while Mason was fouled by Potomac numerous times but managed to make most of their foul shots.  In the last two minutes of the final quarter, Mason put in all the seniors.  The teams finished strong with the final score of 46 to 59 with Potomac Falls taking the win.

Seniors, although upset at the loss, were happy to have had another chance to play against a challenging team.  “I thought we played good,” Andrew Lieber commented, “We missed some easy lay-ups,” he added, regretting the teams’ loss.  “We played hard,” Joel Chandler added, “but they were just a good team.”  The Coach Capannola was “very pleased with the effort.”

Senior Night Fundraiser Correction