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The Northwest girls volleyball team continued its hot start as they defeated Rockville, 25-7, 25-12, 25-19, Thursday night in Germantown.

"Today's game was phenomenal and it started with Rockville," said first-year Northwest head coach Rob Smith. "They are a very good team and I think they came out a little flat today, but our energy carried us over. We are getting ready for B-CC."

After years of mediocrity, the Jaguars (7-0) hold a surprising undefeated record halfway through the regular season, but have yet to be tested. However, with matches against perennial Montgomery County powers Bethesda-Chevy Chase, Quince Orchard, Gaithersburg and Poolesville in the coming weeks, they have a chance to prove they belong among the county's elite.

"Everyone is high-energy," said Smith of his team's play throughout the season. "Everyone's playing well. We're talking, playing all the way around and we should be fine [the rest of the year]."

After Northwest won the first two games with relative ease, the Rams (4-3) found themselves with an 11-6 lead in game three, led by senior captain and outside hitter Emma Rutter, who finished with six kills.

However, the Jaguars rallied to win 15 of the next 23 points to sweep the match.

With their tallest player standing at only 5-foot-10, the Jaguars were able to compensate for their lack of height with an outstanding service game that collected 16 aces.

Junior all-arounder Jessica Warner and senior defensive specialist Hanna Yi finished with five aces apiece while freshman hitter Rachel Townsend had four aces to make things difficult on the Rams' receive-and-pass game.

"We have been struggling with teams that serve well," said Rockville Coach Cindy Hollies. "I've got a couple of boys that will do some serving at them [in practice] so we will see if we can pick them up just a little bit more."