HOMETOWN — It was entirely fitting that Marian clinched its non-league girls’ volleyball victory over Nativity on Monday with a service ace.
That became a recurring theme throughout Marian’s 25-17, 25-21, 25-22 triumph in the battle of Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association Class A ranked teams.
“Our serving was better than theirs. Simple as that,” Marian head coach John Fallabel said after the Fillies accumulated 18 aces, including six by senior setter Courtney McCall.
At the other bench, the feeling was the same, but stated from Nativity head coach Jennifer Daubert’s perspective.
“Serve receive,” she said of her team’s principal problem, adding, “They can serve you off the floor at times.”
While Nativity (13-2) got early leads in each set, the Fillies (12-2) turned around each set with service runs peppered with aces.
Four of those aces came from sophomore outside hitter Jasmine Mooney, whose hard overspin serve sometimes left Green Wave players in awkward positions while trying to return it.
“I never really learned it anywhere,” Mooney said of the rapidly dropping serve. “It just happened and I kind of stuck with it.”
Marian’s serves left an unresolved issue for Division IV champion Nativity, considering Marian and Nativity will be slated to oppose each other next Tuesday in the Schuylkill League semifinals if Marian can clinch the Division II title by beating Pine Grove today.
Yet, while Monday’s match offered a pairing of the Nos. 2 (Marian) and 5 (Nativity) teams in the latest PVCA Class A poll, Fallabel said it wasn’t a pivotal match in Marian’s march toward the postseason.
“We knew where we were as a team on Saturday,” Fallabel said, referring to the Lady Tide Classic at Martz Hall, where the Fillies joined Class AA Berks Catholic and Class AAA Altoona and Garden Spot in the semifinals.
Monday’s match may have been a greater measuring stick for Nativity.
“That’s a good question,” Daubert said. “I thought we came out with good energy. I thought we did well when we had some service runs. I thought we did a pretty good job with the block.”
But momentum changed when Nativity was unable to maintain serve.
The Green Wave took a 6-2 lead in the opening set behind Noelle Steele’s five-point service run that included an ace and kills by Jocelyn Holobetz and Cecelia DiNicola.
Marian fought back and took command with McCall serving. She dealt two aces and got two kills from Mooney to turn Nativity’s 8-6 lead into a 14-8 deficit.
The Green Wave never got closer than three points after that as Mooney finished the set with four kills while Abby Stankiewitch had three.
Stankiewitch and McCall then combined to serve Marian to a big lead in the second set. With Marian trailing 5-3, the two served 11 of the next 12 points, including five aces and helped by two kills by Mooney.
Nativity, though, did not fold. Led by two of Holobetz’s 12 kills in the match, the Green Wave cut the margin to three points three times before a hitting error allowed Marian to take set point.
The close play continued throughout the third set, which was tied 10 times.
After a Nativity serve into the net trimmed the Green Wave’s lead to 22-21, Mooney re-entered the match as a server and Marian won four straight points — two on kills by Maureen Kloap and another on a kill by Abby Pilla before a match-clinching ace.
The close third set left Fallabel dissatisfied with his team’s focus.
“We had no school today, and it made a big difference because they get themselves pumped up and all ready at school. They feed off the energy of the school,” he said.
Mooney and Kloap each led the Fillies with nine kills. Stankiewitch added six kills and three aces. McCall had 23 assists and 10 digs, while Gianna Agosti added 11 digs.
For Nativity, Holobetz added 10 digs while Ashley Strausser had eight kills and eight digs. DiNicola had four blocks while Steele posted 18 assists.
Marian won the JV match, 25-20, 24-26, 25-17.