HOMETOWN — If Marian and Blue Mountain eventually meet in the Schuylkill League championship match, no one who attended Thursday’s Division I-II crossover showdown would be surprised.
“Great volleyball. This is what high school volleyball is,” Marian head coach John Fallabel said. “They played a great match. Good team. I hope we see them down the line somewhere.”
If that happens, the Eagles will try to avenge Thursday’s 25-23, 21-25, 25-23, 25-19 loss to the Fillies.
Fallabel credited his assistant coaches with moves that eventually grounded the Eagles (7-1, 5-1 D-I).
“They took over the game in the second set, Maria (Currie) and Rachel (Krajcirik),” he said. “Moving Jasmine (Mooney) to middle hitter on that rotation, have her play middle. Just picking up the spirit on the bench and running the team and the timeouts.
“They changed the atmosphere of the girls on the bench. They changed the atmosphere on the court.”
But the turnaround wasn’t sudden as the Eagles put up a stiff challenge that only faded in the fourth set.
“This is exactly what we needed,” Blue Mountain head coach Nick Marrongelle said
of the competition. “We’ve been playing well, but you have to hand it to them. They’re a good team, but so are we.
“Respect isn’t earned overnight. Maybe we got a little tonight, but let’s not discount ourselves. They (Marian) are a good team.”
Marian (6-2, 6-0 D-II) won a tight first set that was tied 13 times, the last at 23-23. But the Fillies’ Abby Stankie-witch, who finished with 17 kills in the match and 705 in her career, scored a dink to get the serve back. She then served the clinching point, scored when Mooney dinked the ball to the Eagles’ court.
Blue Mountain broke away from a 15-15 tie in the second set to win. Marian had a chance to tie the match at 22, but Mooney’s serve went wide and Blue Mountain scored the final two points.
The Eagles then rolled to a 6-1 lead in the third set, but that was Blue Mountain’s high-water mark.
The Fillies battled back to tie the match at 16-16 and then pulled ahead to lead 24-20. But Blue Mountain staved off three set points, including kills by Lexi Juritsch and Ashley Snesavage, before Marian won 25-23 on Stankiewitch’s kill.
Marian then pulled away from a 5-5 deadlock in the fourth set to clinch the match.
“We just couldn’t serve- receive in game four,” Marrongelle said. “We ended up tightening it up, but we dug ourselves too much of a hole. In games one, two and three, we serve-received well and we were aggressive.
“But we’ve got to shore up the middle. Abby Stank-iewitch hit us hard, but she’s one of the best players in the league for a reason.”
Senior outside hitter Maureen Kloap posted 12 kills, 15 digs and three blocks for the Fillies. Mooney added 10 kills and seven digs. McCall recorded 19 assists and had 21 digs.
Blue Mountain countered with nine kills and two blocks by Nicole McQuillan. Snesavage added 12 digs, 22 assists and two blocks while Juritsch had six kills and nine digs.
Thursday’s match was the latest this week featuring teams with undefeated records.
After Marian sent Panther Valley to its first loss on Monday, Nativity gave Tri-Valley its initial setback on Tuesday. Blue Mountain was the latest to go to defeat, leaving Nativity with the lone undefeated overall dual-match record in the league.
Nativity visits Blue Mountain on Saturday morning in a rematch of the Gatorade Invitational Tournament championship match at Pottsville, where the Eagles beat Nativity for the title.
In Thursday’s JV match, Blue Mountain claimed a 2-1 victory.