Another year, another heartbreak on the hilltop for the Archbishop Carroll girls basketball team.
The Lady Pats fell to District I’s top seeded Perkiomen Valley in the PIAA/6A State Semifinals 52-45 Friday night in a packed gym at Plymouth-Whitemarsh High School.
It was the second consecutive season where the Lady Pats dropped a matchup deep into a state run following a Philadelphia Catholic League Championship defeat. The club also fell to Parkland High School in the state quarterfinals last season following a double/OT loss to Archbishop Wood in the Catholic League title. This year’s semifinals loss comes on the heels of the team’s PCL title defeat to Neumann-Goretti nearly a month prior.
“They’re good; they’re very good and nobody is going to deny that,” said Patriots head coach Renie Shields. “Our team did exactly what we asked them to do and then we just got down to the last four minutes and couldn’t connect.”
From the opening tip, the contest would be neck and neck. Following an early Perkiomen Valley advantage that saw the Vikings take a 7-2 lead in the opening minutes, Carroll closed the gap. The girls were able to make it just a two point lead for PV at the end of the first quarter, as Kayla Eberz and junior guard Alexis Eberz both were able to put a few nice buckets through against a Vikings defense that held really strong all night.
As the second period got underway, the Lady Pats pulled away for their first advantage of the game, where they led 20-19 with about 4:20 to go in the second period. This came on the back of a strong run to open the period coming from a couple big three’s from senior guard Olivia Nardi and sophomore guard Abbie McFillin.
“I think in all the spots where we’d let in or go down, we kept coming back and really playing together as a team,” said Kayla Eberz. “We did a really good job at keeping our composure no matter what the circumstances happened to be.”
As the half came to a close, Carroll came to terms with the fact that it wasn’t going to be stopping PV’s Quinn Boettinger. The 6-foot-3-inch Naval Academy commit made life extremely difficult for Carroll down low and in the screen game all day long. With just a minute to go in the first half, Boettinger already had 14 points as her Vikings led by four.
Carroll was able to pull off a brief run before the half’s close to make it a one point ballgame at halftime as they looked for a momentum swing. That was something that became hard to come by in a PW gym that left nearly no seats empty and was swathed in Perkiomen Valley orange all night.
The momentum did not end up flipping as PV went on a 10-5 run to open the second half and led 36-30 with 3:46 to go in the third period. The Lady Pats, while maintaining a steady run on offense, couldn’t find any answer for Boettinger and the Vikings’ attack.
“She had 12 to start the game,” said Shields. “First thing is, like, where’s our answer? They did a great job of spreading the floor. They put Grace out wide and Quinn down low, which is hard to defend, so we made an adjustment and started to limit her in the second half.”
As the half went on, Carroll was able to inch back into things more and more. The Lady Pats eventually trailed by only one at the end of the third quarter.
Things stayed neck and neck through the fourth quarter as Carroll trailed 43-42 with 4:21 to go in the fourth. Alexis and Kayla Eberz both played as the main cogs in the late game run, putting down some big shots while also swiping away a couple balls for consecutive buckets that played a big part in closing the gap.
However, as the game slowed down in the later minutes, points became much harder to come by. What had become Carroll’s bugaboo all season came to strike again as the offense went dormant in the final minutes.
“I would say Perk Valley made lucky shots down the stretch,” said Kayla Eberz. “They banked that one shot in and there’s nothing we can do about it. We kept our head high but they’re all very good players and we knew we were going to have to get shots off more.”
Carroll’s last shot of the game fell with just under two minutes. With her team trailing by only two, Alexis Eberz chucked up a deep three point attempt in a huge spot but it rimmed off.
“Well, I thought it was a good shot,” said Shields. “Then you could say, well, I should’ve called a timeout there. But Abbie had the layup and you’re not going to get a better shot than Abbie’s layup: she just missed it. We had another possession where we could’ve called a timeout but sometimes it’s better to just let them play and figure it out. We just missed shots and it really came down to that.”
The shot, hailing with just a minute and 20 seconds to go, looked as though it may have been the Lady Pats last real shot at victory. Perkiomen Valley would run it back down the court and put down a few free throws to grow their lead. The Lady Pats then came up empty handed on their next few possessions as PV slowly and agonizingly pulled away little by little, draining shot after shot at the foul line.
Eventually as a Maddie McFillin layup rimmed off, the season came to an end.
McFillin only returned from what was supposed to be a season ending knee injury last week. She brought a few points, rebounds and assists to the table.
McFillin headlines a strong group of seniors for the Lady Pats who have overseen one of the most successful eras in Carroll girls basketball over the last four years. McFillin (Air Force, D1), Brooke Olender (Scranton, D3), Bridget Archbold (Catholic University, D3), Olivia Nardi, and Djami Dialllo will now all move onto the next chapters in their careers following the loss.
“I think what we’ll remember most about (this senior class) is how they showed up every day,” said Shields. “They came out every day and got better, even though a lot of them didn’t get a ton of minutes down the stretch and I told them it’s hard. But what they do is compete every day and make us better and they bring us to a point where we work hard every day.”
Despite the large graduating class with a few college commits that will be stripped from the lineup, this Carroll Girls club holds much promise for the future. The team’s top three scorers Alexis Eberz (junior), Kayla Eberz (freshman), and Abbie McFillin (sophomore), along with sophomore guard Caitlin Schumacher, junior forward Bridget Grant, and freshman guard Kelsey Eberz, who missed nearly her entire first year with injury, will look to contribute on this Carroll club in 2025-26.
