Garnet Valley falls short in state volleyball semifinal
NEWVILLE — There were a few tears and the disappointment was obvious after Garnet Valley fell to North Allegheny, 3-1, in the semifinals of the PIAA Class 4A volleyball tournament Tuesday night.
The goal all season has been to win the state title for the second time in three years, not only get to the state championship match. So falling short of that goal in the semis for the second consecutive year was frustrating for the Jaguars.
Yet Garnet Valley also took pride in the fact that it was the first team in Delaware County history to reach a state volleyball semifinal three years in a row.
“We’ve set the bar high,” first year Garnet Valley coach Greg Wood said. “Our goal was to get to the state championship game and win the state championship. That’s our goal every year and we just fell short today.”
The Jaguars (21-4) did go down swinging. Defending Class 4A champion North Allegheny had to work to take the 25-23, 23-25, 25-15, 25-21 victory to advance to Saturday’s final at Cumberland Valley High School against the winner of the Bishop Shanahan-Parkland game.
“I thought our serve receiving and our defense tipped the match in our favor,” North Allegheny coach Heidi Miller said.
Key to that defense were players such as Paige Miller, Anna Sprys, Allena Carmody and Abby Miller. Paige Miller did not play like the sophomore. She had 17 digs to go along with a team-high 14 kills. Sprys added 12 kills and seven blocks. Carmody, the libero, had 19 digs and Miller handed out 17 assists.
“They passed extremely well,” Wood said. “They played better defense and they talked. They communicated much better than we did and those are things we need to clean up moving forward. We have the talent to do that, we just didn’t execute. I knew this was going to come down to execution. I felt we had the better team, to be honest with you, but we didn’t execute the way we needed to.”
North Allegheny had a lot to do with that.
“The best thing they do is that they play well as a unit,” Wood said. “They blocked well and they covered extremely well. They played great defense. They didn’t let any balls hit the ground.
Paige Miller and Sprys were key part of that defensive effort. Miller kept many balls alive, while Sprys wreaked havoc at the net.
“I don’t think we were prepared for their blocks,” senior middle blocker Ally Hartney said. “A lot of their points came from blocks and we weren’t ready as a defense to respond to where the ball was going. It’s a big court to have to cover for six girls.”
The third set was the difference. After going back-and-forth in the first two sets the Tigers (22-0) jumped out early in the third set to swing the momentum in their favor and extend their winning streak to 46 matches. North Allegheny used an 11-1 run to break the set open.
“I think when we won that second set we felt too confident,” said Hartney, who finished with eight kills, three blocks, one dig and one ace. “Once we lost the first few points we let it get in our heads. We thought, ‘OK, let’s let that one go and get the next one,’ and it didn’t happen.”
Garnet Valley did fight back to tie the fourth set at 21 behind the play of Hartney, All-Delco setter Rachel Cain (21 assists), Sam Mann (five kills, two blocks) and Gwen Clark (four kills, three digs) among others, but it wasn’t enough. The Tigers ran off the final four points to bring the Jags’ season to a close in the semifinals for the second year in a row.
“It wasn’t easy getting here, but I’m super proud of my team and how we finished this season,” Cain said. “I think it will live on in Garnet Valley volleyball and hopefully, next year, they will have even better success.”
