The Mount de Sales volleyball team unite in knocking off previously unbeaten Archbishop Spalding in Catonsville Wednesday evening.

MOUNT DE SALES RISES UP

Sailors hand defending IAAM A champ Spalding first setback
by Derek Toney

Katy Buck said the Mount de Sales Academy volleyball team was "young" last year. With just two seniors on this fall's roster, young could be again the operative word, but the Sailors grew up some last night.

The Catonsville school knocked Archbishop Spalding from the ranks of the unbeaten with a five-set decision at the Constance and Pistorio Sports Complex. A week after suffering its first defeat, Mount de Sales responded against the defending IAAM A Conference champions, 25-16, 19-25, 25-23, 19-25 and 16-14.  

"We have a couple of years together and we have improved tremendously," said Buck, a sophomore hitter. "We knew we had it in us."

A point away from defeat in the decisive game, the Sailors claimed the final four points as junior Elissa Boffen serve landed inside the back line to complete the rally. Boffen finished with three aces, 18 digs and went 17-of-19 on serves, and Buck had 23 kills, went 19-of-21 on serves and had 29 digs.

"We wanted to not give up and not let the ball hit the floor," said Mount de Sales coach Kenny Mills, whose team lost to unbeaten St. Paul's School for Girls last week. "We got some key blocks, we got some key serving points, and the girls really stepped it up in the fifth game for us."

The Cavaliers were up 13-8 before Mount de Sales got the next four winners to close within one. A deflected block attempt by the Sailors went out of bounds, putting Spalding within one point of victory, but a Cavalier shot went out on the backline. A shot by Mount de Sales freshman Hannah Schmidt deflected off the Cavaliers, and she followed with a winner in the right corner, leaving Boffen to finish the upset.

"We have a lot of trouble sometimes moving our feet going to the ball," said Boffen. "We had to stay focused and make sure we move because obviously we're not going to get to the ball."

Schmidt contributed nine kills and five block kills, Kasey Mercier finished with 14 kills and 20 digs, and senior Shannon Clancy had 40 assists. Mills said winning the opening game was a huge factor.

Spalding struck early in the second and fourth games, but the Cavaliers weren't able to finish in the final set. Cavaliers coach Scott Rombach wasn't surprised Mount de Sales pushed his squad to the limit.

"You can never count this team out," said Rombach. "I give my girls a lot of credit, this is definetely a tough place to play in."

"We worked really hard and play pretty well overall," said Spalding senior Kelly Galligan. "We just fell apart at the end. To be one point away, it's a hard loss."

Galligan had 11 kills and went 14-of-14 serving. Andrea Catucci (21-for-21 serves) had three assists and 20 assists, and Meagan Stolarski finished with eight assists and five-for-five serving.

Mount de Sales and Spalding are now each 5-1 in IAAM A play with St. Paul's in first. The Cavaliers and Sailors expect to see each other in a couple of weeks in the league tournament. Spalding will play St. Paul's in a rematch of last year's title game next Friday afternoon in Severn.

"This is what volleyball and the challenge," said Rombach, whose team finish the regular season with four home games starting with St. Vincent Pallotti Thursday. "We're going to be one of the higher seeds, depending on what we do against St. Paul's. This is something for us to come back to and mark on our calendar."

"They picked up everything that we threw at them and made us work pretty hard to find holes on the floor," said Mills. "What it came down to was we were here at home, we wanted it more."