Sure, like her Marian teammates, Grace Boyle was seeking a PIAA Class A state championship in the finals in November at Central York High School.
She wasn't looking for a sign that the championship would happen, but perhaps she found one.
She greeted Jason Leppo, head coach of eventual Class AA champion Delone Catholic. Leppo was Boyle's coach during a camp last summer at Shippensburg University where she began to hone her skill for an ever increasing role for the Fillies in 2013.
The skills learned in that camp before the season not only helped Marian to the state crown, the school's first since 2003, at the finish, but it has rewarded Boyle with numerous postseason awards, including The Republican-Herald Girls' Volleyball Player of the Year.
"I was very honored to be able to live up to my peers and be able to get so many accomplishments," said Boyle, who is also a Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association Class A all-star, a District 11 Class A all-star and the Schuylkill League Division IV Player of the Year.
This time, Boyle tops a list of deserving first-team honorees that include Marian teammates Abby O'Donnell and Abby Stankiewitch. The others are Pottsville's Haley Drum and Hannah Corbacio, Nativity's Emily Field, Blue Mountain's Brittney Moyer, Halifax's Catherine Amoriello and Tri-Valley's Jordan Schwalm.
Blue Mountain freshman Maya Throne is the Rookie of the Year, while Marian's John Fallabel is the Coach of the Year.
Boyle a leader among talented seniors
"This year, everything came together because of the leadership. They made this a team. ⦠The seniors said this year was their year," Fallabel said.
That included Boyle, whose maturation was a pleasant surprise for Fallabel and the Fillies' faithful.
"For the past three years, I had miniscule offense other than MaryKate (Sherkness), so I knew I had to get someone to give me kills," Fallabel said, "and she exceeded my expectations."
After amassing 321 kills and 120 digs in her first three seasons, Boyle responded with 300 kills as a senior. She had a .247 hitting percentage, while adding 56 aces and five blocks. With 621 career kills, Boyle leaves Marian ninth on the school's career list.
However, Fallabel said Boyle's 271 digs was the most impressive statistic, and Boyle agreed because of the mental effort it took to change her style of volleyball.
"My defense was definitely what I needed to work on because when I was a freshman, sophomore, junior, the only thing I played was front row," said Boyle, who has been playing the sport since fourth grade to follow older sister Emmarose's own participation. "I never really played back row because my defense was weak. I knew for myself that, especially in the offseason last year, defense was what I needed to bring up, and Doc (Fallabel) told me that I did.
"You put yourself in a different mind-set for defense. You say you're going to dive for the ball on the ground wherever it is. You're going to go and get it."
That additional skill enabled Boyle's value to increase even as the Fillies incorporated fellow first-team all-star middle hitter Abby Stankiewitch into the offense.
"The challenge for her this year was to move the ball from the outside to the inside," Fallabel said of Boyle's adjustment. "There were some games that we wanted to feature Abigail, and that made Grace feel bad because she wants to contribute."
Yet, when Stankiewitch injured an ankle midway through the season, Boyle returned to the forefront with her outside attack, and Marian did not falter as it won the Schuylkill League championship with Stankiewitch on the bench.
The defensive work also enhances Boyle's image for collegiate coaches seeking to recruit her for their squads. Looking to major in some form of business degree, the Andreas resident has garnered plenty of interest. Some of that has been generated by her inclusion on a recruiting website.
"It's overwhelming some times," Boyle said of the possibilities. "You don't know what to do and where to look and what you want."
However, once she makes up her mind, Fallabel is sure that college Boyle chooses will receive a dedicated volleyball player, one who said she will return to Marian to help him if the next set of Fillies needs her.
"I can't say enough about what a good kid Grace is," Fallabel said.
Throne a force in the making
When the Schuylkill League's Division I coaches named their teams' all-stars, there was one freshman on the list, and it was no surprise to Blue Mountain head coach Nick Marrongelle that one of his players, Maya Throne, was the freshman named.
"It shows us our players are progressing the way they should be," Marrongelle said about Throne's selection as The Republican-Herald Rookie of the Year. "We have great all-around girls who are willing to listen and to work at it, and Maya is a prime example of that."
In fact, that work will be accelerated next season, when Throne may be counted to fill the sizable shoes of graduating libero Michelle O'Dell.
"She will have to come from being a part-time back row player. The libero is so much different than any other player on the floor," Marrongelle said. "That will be her focus in the gym in June with us. We will be working on it every single day, and she will take to it very quickly."
In the meantime, the other Division I coaches also saw the potential after Throne posted 264 digs, 55 aces, five assists and 17 kills out of the back row for the Eagles, one season after Throne was the squad's manager while in eighth grade.
"I usually have managers taking care of the balls and the stats, but I also allow them to do some drills, some basic stuff," Marrongelle said. "They get to interact with the players on the team, so I think that was a big help as well."
That interaction is set up another notch next season, when Moyer is the lone returning senior for a young squad that must be led by Throne as well.
"First of all, she has a great work ethic," Marrongelle said. "She will battle to the very end, no matter what. That's what I love about her."
Fallabel leads a united team of Fillies
Fallabel will take Marian's players and coaches to Harrisburg in January, when the House of Representatives will welcome the Fillies onto the floor to salute their state crown.
It will be the latest honor for a team that grew together under the man who now has two PIAA Class A state championships on his resume.
"He keeps us looking at the game right in front of us, and he's very good at making sure we stay in the moment, do what we need to do for that game," Boyle said. "Also, he doesn't tell us exactly what to expect. When he'll know something about teams, he won't tell us this girl has so many kills, this is their best player. He'll give us things and show us things in practice without us knowing. He does things that don't make us nervous."
However, that formula doesn't always translate into the level of success achieved in 2013. For that, Fallabel gives much credit to his assistant coaches and to the good fortune that Stankiewitch provided by her presence in the middle.
What did have to change, however, was communication, something that Marian and Fallabel learned through losses to both Notre Dame-Green Pond and Holy Redeemer early in the season. Fallabel began the "three C's" drill, in which the goal was communicating, covering for teammates and cheering the outcome of points win or lose.
"We learned so much that day about traveling to empty gyms and noise levels, and that's where we started instituting our ability to communciate at a high level," Fallabel said of the defeat at Holy Redeemer in Wilkes-Barre. "We made it a key component of our practice. If you were not yelling, you had to run."
He said the four seniors provided great leadership along the way. Yet, without them in 2014, he said, the bar is still high for his Fillies.
"After the state final, I walked up to Maureen (Kloap) and Abigail (Stankiewitch) and said, 'It's up to you. You can win two more (PIAA titles) if you want.' You always want to have them dream," Fallabel said, then admitting he dreams as well.
"I think we can win two more state titles," he said.
Noting first-team setter Abby O'Donnell will graduate after next season, he said, "We just have to invent a setter for that to happen, and I'm going to spend the year working on that, training a junior to be that as a senior."