REMATCH REPEAT

Spalding takes down unbeaten St. Paul's in IAAM A volleyball regular season finale
by Derek Toney

     Archbishop Spalding High School volleyball coach Scott Rombach knew there was only one way to prepare his team for St. Paul's School and its powerful hitter Bailey Webster.

     "We have rest stand pretty much like this," said Rombach standing behind the officials' stand on his home floor Friday evening, "I just stood on the top of thing and I just wailed at them. I said 'here's what coming so get ready.'"

      And like last year's IAAM A Conference tournament championship game, the Cavaliers more than held their own against the 6-foot, three inch Webster. Spalding displaced the Gators from the unbeaten ranks with a 25-15, 25-15, 19-25 and 25-19 decision in Severn.

      In winning their finale in league competition, Spalding (8-1 league, 14-1 overall) finished tied with St. Paul's and Mount de Sales. Which team gets the No. 1 seed for the tournament will be figured out early next week at the league's pre-tournament coaches' meeting. In addition to Spalding's triumph over St. Paul's, Mount de Sales defeated the Cavaliers last week. St. Paul's handed Mount de Sales its' only league loss.

      The two top seeds will host quarterfinal and semifinal matches in the tournament that's set to begin Friday Oct. 26 with two opening round games. The championship finale will be Nov. 3 at Villa Julie College.

      Last year at Goucher College, Spalding overcame elimination point in the fourth game and an early hole in the decisive fifth game to dethrone the Gators. In the rematch Friday, the Cavaliers raced out to a 2-0 lead, then pulled away late in the fourth game, likely knocking St. Paul's out of the area's No. 1 ranking.

      Jennifer Rindone had six kills, three blocks and five aces to pace the Cavaliers' effort. Kelly Galligan had eight kills and two blocks, and Stephanie Howard contribute eight kills.

      Webster, arguably the area's most feared hitter, had a game-high 22 kills for the Gators (14-1 overall). The Cavaliers knew containing the 6-foot, three inch junior All-American would be impossible, so they simply played a waiting game.

      "The biggest thing we wanted to do is if we could side out while she was going through the front row, then we'll scored our points when she's in the backrow," said Rombach. "There's no way stopping her when she gets the set. She's going to get her points, we had to our points in a different place."

       "We hit the ball where they weren't playing defense," said Howard. "We also timed ourselves really well when Bailey was hitting."

        Trailing 18-10 in the fourth game, St. Paul's closed to within 19-18 as Bailey capped the surge with back-to-back kills. The Cavaliers won the next five points before St. Paul's wasn't able keep to the ball inbounds, clinching victory for Spalding. Rombach said last week's loss at Mount de Sales helped re-energized the Cavaliers.

        "Losing is not always a bad thing, let's learn from this," said Rombach, whose lost in five games to Mount de Sales Oct. 10. "That was our first big challenge."

        In their first major road test in league competition, St. Paul's struggled most of the game. Gators coach Kelli Wilkinson said Spalding played with a purpose.

        "We let them rattled us. Our serving and passing was off," said Wilkinson. "We had 23 zero passes which means we didn't have an option on the net. It's basic fundamentals, usually where we're very strong we kind of fell apart a little bit tonight. It's not a cakewalk in this league."

        The anticipated championship game rematch looked more like a mismatch early. The Cavaliers closed the opening game with a 13-4 run as St. Paul's weren't able to get to a tap shot by Howard. Down 11-3 in game two, Spalding railed past the Gators with a strong net play as Andrea Catucci's serve caught the top of net, then drop over for the clincher. Catucci played a solid all-around game at setter with 16 assists, seven digs and 16-of-16 serving.

         Holding a terse 19-18 lead, St. Paul's scored four straight points, including two kills from Bailey Griswold, to get back into contention in the fourth game as Bailey clinched the game with a kill. After Bailey's shot went off Spalding for a point bringing the Gators to within 19-18 in the fourth game, they had shots land in net twice as Cavaliers pulled away.

        "I was so excited to play these girls, they're such a good group and really talented especially Bailey [Webster] and Jillian Unitas," said Galligan. "We were working hard to adjust to their hitters. We just worked on moving the ball around and using our hitting."

         The Cavaliers have a non-league contest with Chesapeake-Anne Arundel Monday to close the regular season while St. Paul's has Notre Dame Prep and Bryn Mawr next week. If the regular season holds true, St. Paul's, Spalding and Mount de Sales will be the ones battling for the IAAM A championship glass bowl.

         "If they decide to show up, they can win," said Rombach of the trio. "It's going to come down to who wants it more."
 
Archbishop Spalding 3, St. Paul's School 1  (Spalding 25-15, 25-15, 19-25 and 25-19)
Stats
St. Paul's: Bailey Griswold (seven kills, four aces); Rachel Kelley (three kills, 35 assists, two blocks); Jillian Unitas (six kills); Liz Vlk (four aces); Bailey Webster (22 kills).
Spalding: Andrea Catucci (16 assists, seven digs, 16-of-16 serving); Kelly Galligan (eight kills, two blocks); Stephanie Howard (eight kills), Ashley Novak (two kills, 7-of-7 serving); Jennifer Rindone (six kills, three blocks, five digs, five aces); Emily Snyder (two blocks, seven digs); Megan Stolarski (10 assists, eight digs, five aces).