Archbishop Carroll’s volleyball team made the Pennsylvania state playoffs after losing 3-1 to Cardinal O’Hara in the Philadelphia Catholic League title game.
“I’m proud of everyone,” said senior star Grace Plechner. “We put in so much work and we all worked very well together. I want to wish them luck for the next couple of years.”
Set one of the PCL title game started with Carroll going down by five points. The O’Hara fan section was rowdy and rattled the Lady Pats, but the Patriots rallied and tied the set at 15 after a Big Spring timeout. Kill after kill for the Lady Pats gave them the set one victory, 25-21.
Set two began the same as set one for the Pats as they went down 4-1 early. The Lady Pats kept their composure and went up 20-16 before a timeout from Big Spring. Coming out of the timeout, Big Spring had a 9-2 scoring stretch that won them set two.
Sets three and four started the same easy as the prior two for the Lady Pats as they went down by more than two points in both sets. Set three saw the Patriots winning 21-11. Set four was back and forth the entire set. Many different lead changes in the set led to Big Spring ahead before a Carroll timeout. Coming out of their timeout, the Patriots lost the set by a score of 25-19.
The final and most important set of the night was set five. Unlike the starts of the previous four sets, Carroll went ahead by two points. That lead did not last long and shortly they were down by two points again. After a Carroll timeout, Big Spring came out swinging. A 14-7 Big Spring lead led the Patriots to call another timeout. The next point did go to Carroll but the joy did not last much longer after a Big Spring kill to win the game.
“Our girls need to work on mental toughness and they need to know that when we get older we need to have the energy from the start,” said head coach Melanie Coates-Rivera.
