HOMETOWN — Marian senior Abby O’Donnell may have just finished a career which was surpassed by just one other setter in the school’s volleyball history, but in truth,she’s just continuing a tradition.
“Rachel Krajcirik was a setter at Marian when I wasn’t at Marian yet,” O’Donnell, named The Republican-Herald All-Area Girls’ Volleyball Player of the Year, said. “I was just in middle school still, but I would go to thegames and watch her play. She went to the same grade school that Iwent to, Our Lady of the Angels, so I knew her from here.
“Going to watch her play at Marian,it was like an honor to even watch her.”
When Krajcirik became an assistant coach at Marian and O’Donnell arrived there, the connection was complete – and so was O’Donnell’s future.
“I knew it was going to be great for me because she was going to understand everything that I was going to be going through, and I knew I could always go to her if something was wrong,”O’Donnell said.
After this season, O’Donnell had surpassed Krajcirik’s career assist total to finish with 3,486, only behind Kayla Paluka’s 3,783 assists in school history. Along the way, Marian posted finishes of third, second and first in the PIAA Class A Tournament to uphold the Fillies’ volleyball tradition.
That tradition now includes three other Fillies also named to the All-Area first team – senior Emily Pilla and juniors Maureen Kloap and Abby Stankiewitch.
The other selections are Blue Mountain senior Brittney Moyer, Nativity junior Jocelyn Holobetz and Millersburg senior Samantha Hines.
Blue Mountain freshman Ashley Snesavage was named the Rookie of the Year.
For leading his team to another state championship match, Marian head coach John Fallabel repeats as Coach of the Year over two other deserving coaches — Nan Addvensky, who led Schuylkill Haven to its first District 11 Tournament appearance in a decade, and Richard Berg,
who led Millersburg’s revival into this year’s Division III champion.
O’Donnell becomes
Marian’s leader
Thinking back, O’Donnell says now that she couldn’t envision just how much her game and personality has developed over the past four years.
“Coming in as a freshman on varsity,I was kind of shy, and it was a real tough year as a freshman,” she said. “But I’ve changed so much from freshman year to senior year,and I think it showed. As a senior, I became more of a leader than I ever knew I could be. Obviously, my skills improved, but I think itwas more of an attitude, an emotional thing.”
While O’Donnell said all of Marian’s seven seniors shared a determination to repeat the PIAA crown won by the 2013 team, she said Krajcirik’s own experience also was passed to her.
“We were both coached by Doc (Fallabel), so it was going to be somewhere in the range like that,”O’Donnell said of her setting skill. “I think me and Rachel have somewhat the same personalities because Rachel was also kind of a big leader on her team. She was a captain. She was always going around yelling, and I think that’s how I was this year too.”
That leadership enabled Marian to win 25 straight matches, all by 3-0 set counts, in 2014 before a 3-2 loss to Greensburg Central Catholic in the PIAA Class A final.
“Coming into the season, the seniors knew especially that there was going to be a big target on our backs,” O’Donnell said, adding, “There was a lot of pressure on our team, but I think we handled it as well as we could.”
Now, with a college career at either Alvernia or Misericordia likely ahead for her, it will become O’Donnell’s turn to pass on the tradition, probably to junior Courtney McCall, who was an outside hitter for the Fillies in 2014.
“Courtney and me are extremely close,” O’Donnell said. “We’re best friends, so we already talked to each other about it, and at practice I’d always try to give her tips, just little things, tell her that the other girls may not like you, but you need to be a loud mouth on the court. You need to be a leader and you can’t worry about that kind of stuff. I think she can handle the position and be able to do a very good job at it.”
Snesavage steps
into new role
Snesavage is beginning to relate to O’Donnell’s position as a maturing setter after Blue Mountain head coach Nick Marrongelle answered the same question which now faces Fallabel.
“I definitely thought it would be much harder than it would be,” she said. “It turns out that I worked out well for the position.”
In fact, the freshman became the latest of three Rookies of the Year fielded this season by the Eagles. Setting for many of former Rookie of the Year Brittney Moyer’s 322 kills, Snesavage finished with 650 assists while contributing 149 digs and 36 service aces. That came after she volunteered to accept the role previously held by highly-regarded and graduated setter Lexi Hammer.
Noticing Snesavage’s ability to control the volleyball as a club player for the Anthracite Volleyball Academy, the coach made his pitch to her.
“I said the quickest way to varsity may be the setter role,” Marrongelle said. “She came back and said, ‘Coach, let me try it.’ Just by her coming to me proved to me that she could handle it.”
While both Fallabel and Marrongelle equate the setter’s role to that of quarterback on a football team, Marrongelle said Snesavage’s leadership is different.
“She leads by example,” Marrongelle said. “We already had enough vocal leadership.”
While Snesavage also accumulated 40 kills and 11 blocks, her example has changed Snesavage’s focus toward her own role for a team which this season won the Schuylkill League Division I championship.
“Now I think I’m a setter that can also play outside hitter,” she said.
With Moyer’s graduation, Marrongelle said next year’s squad, which now includes two Rookies of the Year in libero Maya Throne and Snesavage, will need new leadership.
“We’re looking for a player to step up and be a vocal leader,” he said.
That may be the next step for Snesavage.
Marian coach
looks to rebuild
Leave it to the coach whose team won the Schuylkill League Division II, league and District 11 Class A championships to know when something good really wasn’t.
Avenging a loss from 2013, the Fillies defeated a Class AA team, Notre Dame-Green Pond, in three sets,continuing a streak which reached 78 consecutive sets before dropping the first set in the state final to Greensburg Central Catholic.
“We were hoping we would,” Fallabel said of losing against NDGP. “They had us in all three games and we came back and beat them. … We got beat up in tournaments, but we needed to get beat in a game. We needed to go five games (in a match).”
Yet Fallabel admits that, when Marian finally was challenged in the state final, the Fillies responded well despite the eventual outcome.
“There’s an old Joe Paterno saying,and I love Joe Paterno,” Fallabel said. “When you lose, you’re not as bad as you look. When you win big, you’re not as good as you are. We were a good, solid team. I knew our place. We were a top-four, top-five team in the state of Pennsylvania this season.”
That team faces a rebuilding task next season. In addition to replacing O’Donnell with McCall, the Fillies will need a right-side hitter to replace an All-State player, Pilla. Nine players return from the 2014 team and Fallabel estimates three newcomers will have to step onto the varsity squad.
Yet this is a decision which he has faced in past years. His choices then led him this fall into the Marian Athletic Hall of Fame, an honor which just added to the magicof the 2014 season.
But his guests on the night of his induction made the honor even more memorable.
“I brought the seniors with me,” he said of the induction. “It’s just been a wonderful year with this special group of seven seniors.”
Player of the Year
Abby O’Donnell Senior Marian
Rookie of the Year
Ashley Snesavage Freshman Blue Mountain
Coach of the Year
John Fallabel Marian
First Team
Samantha Hines Senior Millersburg
Jocelyn Holobetz Junior Nativity
Maureen Kloap Junior Marian
Brittney Moyer Senior Blue Mountain
Lauren Nietz Senior Marian
Emily Pilla Senior Marian
Abigail Stankiewitch Junior Marian
Second Team
Alex Ferrier Junior Blue Mountain
Taryn Herb Junior Millersburg
Carley Lionetto Junior Nativity
Amber Roach Senior Millersburg
Meg Schwalm Junior Minersville
Noelle Steele Sophomore Nativity
Paige Miller Senior Halifax
Honorable Mention
Alexis Artz Senior Tri-Valley
Kayla Bressler Senior Pine Grove
Mariah Curry Senior Pottsville
Katie Higgins Sophomore Lehighton
Noel Kaufman Senior Mahanoy Area
Amber Laudenslager Senior Halifax
Tori Pascucci Freshman Schuylkill Haven
Jordan Skoff Sophomore Blue Mountain
Maya Throne Sophomore Blue Mountain
Jessica Wiese Senior Panther Valley