St. Paul's prepares to block to Maryvale at the net Saturday. The Gators remained unbeaten with a straight set decision over the IAAM B Conference leaders.

ST. PAUL'S ROLLS ON

Gators upended neighbor Maryvale in battle of IAAM volleyball's best
by Derek Toney

There are several reasons why the volleyball teams at Maryvale Prep and St. Paul's School for Girls should be rivals. Their respective campuses are about a half-mile apart. Both are in opposing conferences.

But the Gators and Lions are linked together by friendship and admiration. It didn't change Saturday morning with both teams bringing an undefeated record into their match.

"We practice together sometimes, we scrimmages each other in the preseason," said St. Paul's coach Kelli Wilkinson. "We're really close. It's a big family."

The Gators played the "big sister" role, sweeping Maryvale on their home court. There was no bragging afterwards as St. Paul's, the top squad in the IAAM A Conference bested the B Conference pace-setting Lions.  

"It's always fun playing St. Paul's because we know them all. It makes the intensity so much greater," said Maryvale senior Libby Boddiford. "It really brings us all together because we're playing best friends."

Boddiford and Kirbie Hanlon played under Wilkinson on the Towson-based Wild Blue Volleyball Club along with current Gator performers Koran Bae, Rachel Kelley, Bailey Griswold and Jillian Unitas. Maryvale coach Jim Jung has coached at least half-dozen St. Paul's players at Wild Blue including Gators superstar hitter Bailey Webster. Jung and Wilkinson are best friends.

"He brings so much passion and he loves what he does, it's all over his face," said Wilkinson. "I love how excited he gets with the players, and how much fun they have because he's so intense."

"She has a great vision of the court, she's able to coach from the sidelines and help the girls make adjustments," said Jung, who coaches at Wilkinson's camps and clinics. "Volleyball is a game of adjustments, whether its our passing or calls from referee, you have to adjust, adapt and overcome and she's very good at seeing that next step."

Their comradie was put aside for a little over an hour late Saturday morning as the Gators, ranked No. 1 in the Baltimore metro area, improved to 13-0 with a 25-23, 25-19, 25-16 sweep. Kelley paced St. Paul's with 26 assists and three blocks, and Webster and Griswold, had 14 and 10 kills, respectively. Jung felt his Lions (13-1) played well against the 6-foot, three-inch Webster, but struggled with their passing.  

Boddiford had 19 kills to lead Maryvale, and Maggie Kozloski added 16 kills. Wilkinson said watching Boddiford and Hanlon perform was special.
       
"It's really cool seeing how far they've come," said Wilkinson. "The girls I coached are all seniors and it's awesome to see the development over the four years and what great girls they are."

Wilkinson was equally impressed with the Gators' performance recently without the injured Unitas, who Wilkinson hopes to have back in time for Friday's showdown at Archbishop Spalding in a rematch of last year's IAAM A Conference championship match, won by the Cavaliers.        

"They have such great chemistry, they all know each other so well," said Boddiford. "You can definetely see it on the court. Today, we sort of got down on ourselves."

The Lions were minus senior middle hitter Kirsten Halbrich, who Jung said suffered a hyper extended knee Thursday in practice. Though considered an underdog, Maryvale viewed the contest as a win-win proposition.

"This is a growing experience and it always is when we come down," said Jung, whose team is undefeated in B play (10-0) with St. John's Catholic Prep and Notre Dame Prep remaining in league this week. "It makes us a better team. No risk, all reward today."

After the game, Wilkinson and Jung attended St. Paul's annual Octoberfest. In November, Maryvale and St. Paul's hope to cheer the other on to an IAAM championship.

"It's fun playing against people that you know," said Griswold, whose close friends are Hanlon and Maryvale's Marisa Joynt. "We know how good they are, and after the game, we can say 'oh, you did so well,' and they can tell us how we did. It was definitely a competitive game that we wanted to win."