back Hurricanes fall at PIAAs

Hurricanes fall at PIAAs
By RON D’ORAZIO November 10, 2000
SHIPPENSBURG -- Villa Maria Academy’s first day of pool play at the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Volleyball Championships did not start too well.
Playing in Pool A of Class AAA, the Hurricanes’ initial match against Hempfield High School in the round-robin tournament began over an hour late on Thursday at Shippensburg University due to previous matches on their court.

Once the Hurricanes got on the court, they knew it would be a long day.

Hempfield (24-2 coming in), of District 3, battled the Hurricanes point for point until Villa Maria could not keep up. The Hurricanes dropped two close contests to Hempfield, 16-14, 15-13, to start out 0-1 with only two more chances to place in the top two of their pool and get to the semifinals.

Two hours later, the Hurricanes took out their frustrations on District 7’s Greensburg-Salem High School (18-1). Senior Annie Bobiak helped the Hurricanes with two early kills and the team rolled from there. When the smoke cleared, Villa Maria had blitzed Greensburg-Salem, 15-8, 15-4, setting up a must-win night contest against Baldwin High School.

The Hurricanes -- who went 25-0 until the Hempfield match -- and Baldwin both needed victories to enter today’s state semifinals. Villa Maria came out aggressively against Baldwin in the first game. In fact, the Hurricanes were too aggressive against their competition from District 7. From the first serve, the Hurricanes’ hitters could not find their targets and repeatedly knocked the ball out of bounds.

Baldwin capitalized on the errors and ran up a 12-6 lead before Villa Maria got back into the contest.

"At the beginning of the game against Baldwin, we still tried to carry over the momentum that we had from the Greensburg-Salem game," Bobiak said. "We were a little anxious to the ball and were overly aggressive."

Captain Jackie Carbo served up three straight points and Diana McNamee collected key kills to pull the Hurricanes to within three of Baldwin. The Hurricanes got as close as 14-12 before Baldwin took advantage of a final error to take game one.

Villa Maria never recovered from its third close loss of the day. Though they fought Baldwin on each point, the Hurricanes could not muster any offense in a 15-5 defeat that eliminated them from the state tournament.

McNamee, who finished with 18 kills on the day, and sophomore Danielle Skrajewski led the effort against Baldwin with seven kills apiece.

"In retrospect, that first match (with Hempfield) was a tough one to lose," Villa Maria coach Joe Boland said. "Baldwin was just too big and physical for us. It’s not that our kids didn’t try; they played their hearts out.

"Even in that second game, when the score was lopsided, that game went forever. We played really well, but just couldn’t score any points off of them. That’s a credit to Baldwin."

While the Baldwin match ended Villa Maria’s magical run, it was the two games against Hempfield that Boland pinned the early exit on. Despite Bobiak’s 16 kills and Carbo’s 28 helpers, the Hurricanes could not finish either game off.

"We should have won the match," Boland said. "We had enough control over both games. I thought the kids froze a little bit at the end of both games. That’s not the way they have been all year so hopefully that will change."

Though the Hurricanes improved their play as the day went on, the early hole put pressure on a team that had not experienced much of it during the season.

"It’s hard going out losing as a senior," Carbo, who registered 14 total service points, said. "I think that a lot of the eight teams have had a lot more preparation then we have. Their districts are a lot more competitive.

"Our biggest competition of the year was the Freedom match, in which we did excellent, and the Manheim Township match, in which we did excellent. But, there were only two. They (the other teams) had them all year."

Despite the two losses at Shippensburg, the Hurricanes finished with a 26-2 record on the season, including a 25-0 run.

"We gave it all we had," co-captain Marta Delong said. "We have nothing to be sorry for. We played unbelievable."