GIRLS VOLLEYBALL: Pope John Paul II sweeps Oakland Catholic for 4th straight PIAA-3A championship

MECHANICSBURG – Pope John Paul II girls volleyball coach Ryan Sell was just looking for the slightest spark of positivity as the Golden Panthers struggled in the second set in Saturday afternoon’s PIAA Class 3A final.

“My second time out, the goal was to get 10,” Sell said. “That’s it, 10. Just get from nine to 10, you know, and if you can get from nine to 10, we can get from 10 to 11, potentially. So don’t get ahead of ourselves with things like that. So just one point at time.”

PJP II trailed Oakland Catholic 18-9 when Sell called the time out and the margin proceeded to grow a bit more, the Eagles extending their advantage twice to 10, the second time at 20-10.

The Golden Panthers worked to cut into the deficit but still faced the prospect of the tied match as Oakland Catholic held set point at 24-19. But showing its championship pedigree, Pope John Paul II did not give in.

A kill by freshman Cailyn McTamney then a block by Haley Maloney had the Panthers down three. Another point for PJP II forced the Eagles to call time out. The momentum, however, stayed with PJP II as they pulled even at 24 then took lead on Ava Maloney’s kill.

“I think that our energy and just the drive that we wanted to win was the reason why we came back,” senior Ava Maloney said. “Because we just all had so much fire in us that we wanted to win so badly. I mean, everyone expects us to win but it’s not easy right? And I feel like that was just, we just have to prove that we can’t lose.”

An Oakland Catholic shot going long completed the rally, Pope John Paul II taking the final seven points to win the set 26-24.

“Sophia (Benincasa), our libero, she really just served them off the court, kept them out of system,” PJP II senior Norah Busch said. “I would say that’s what led us to go on that big run. I’d say our grit. We had a big game plan coming into this so when we were at the set point and we were in these really tough, hard high pressure situations, we knew what they going to do, we knew to be for those tips, to be ready for those deep shots and I’d say that’s how we fought our way back.’

The Golden Panthers erased an early deficit in the fourth set with a 7-0 run and pulled away from there as they captured their fourth consecutive PIAA championship with a 3-0 (26-24, 26-24, 25-18) victory at Cumberland Valley High School.

“Honestly it’s the most surreal thing in my entire life,” Ava Maloney said. “I feel like now that I have so much weight lifted off my shoulders, so much less pressure. And I just, I don’t know, it’s such a big accomplishment with these girls. This is such a group that I love, my sister’s on the team, my best friends forever, I’ll always be with these girls so I just love all of them.”

Norah Busch put down 21 kills to pace the attack as PJP II pulled out two tough sets – trailing for much of the first game while finishing the second with an 16-4 run – before building a lead as large as nine in the third to complete the sweep and once more claim state gold.

“Senior year, coming into it, I knew what it took to get there, so it was less nerve wracking, I would say this year,” said Busch, an NC State commit. “But when we got here today it was so unreal, it was my last time playing as a PJP volleyball player and that, it really set in.”

Pope John Paul II (23-3) went undefeated in their previous three state title runs but had its 80-match win streak snapped early this season as the Golden Panthers fell in five sets to Spring-Ford Sept. 2. PJP II lost twice more to Spring-Ford – which took the PIAA 4A title later Saturday night – the last defeat coming in the Pioneer Athletic Conference final.

After three wins to take the District 1 title, Pope John Paul II picked up four victories – sweeps in the first two rounds then a 3-1 win over District 2 champ Berwick in the semifinals – in the state tournament to keep its place atop Class 3A.

“It humbles you a little bit because prior, again the last three years we haven’t lost much,” Sell said. “And I think that was probably the best thing for us because I don’t really care – I don’t. If you were to ask me what our record was over the last three years, I wouldn’t be able to tell you. I just don’t care about it because the only thing we’re focused on is who are we playing today or who are we playing next.

“And a lot of these girls probably thought about the streak and all this other stuff and honestly when we lost it and it was early, we lost early, it was great for us because hey we’re not invincible, we’re still high school kids playing volleyball and so are they.”

McTamney added nine kills, Haley Maloney had eight kills while Ava Maloney seven kills and 11 digs Benincasa made 13 digs while Busch recorded 10 digs.

“We came in here not knowing at all how the season was going to be, especially from our first game with the loss,” Ava Maloney said. “I feel like we were all kind of like ‘Oh this season could be way different from what we have been doing and expected to do.’ But I feel like we just all worked very hard and gotten so much better since our very first game ‘til now and everyone, I think everybody would say that they’ve all gotten better as a team and we just all gel so well and it means a lot to everybody.”

Oakland Catholic, making its first-ever appearance in the PIAA final, gave PJP II everything it could handle early with an attack led by seniors Josie Fontana, a 6-foot-3 Richmond basketball recruit – and Michayla Booth.

“You don’t get to the final match and be like ‘Oh yeah, you know, we’re just going to score a bunch of points on somebody,” Sell said. “We knew that it was going to be like that back and forth, back and forth. We knew that 26 (Fontana) and 33 (Booth) were going to be their main kids. And again it’s all about staying focused and just continuing to play, don’t get ahead of ourselves.”

In the opening set, after PJP II held an early 3-2 edge the Golden Panthers did not take the lead again until 20-19. Two more points to cap a 4-0 run had Pope John Paul II up 22-19. Oakland Catholic fought off two set points to tie things at 24 but Busch gave PJP II the last two points – a dropping in a soft shot to make it 25-24 then blasting a ball for the 26-24 win.

“Being here before I knew what it took to win the game, like little tips, little rolls, not as hard swings weren’t going to do it,” Busch said. “So I knew that I needed to go out there and give it my all, give all the power I had to those kills. They were a really good team, it was really hard to get shots on them but, yeah, just go out and swing hard, just pretty much my mentality the whole game.”

Oakland Catholic took a 14-9 lead in the second set with three straight points. After a PJP II timeout, the Eagles won the next four to go up 18-0 and force another timeout. Oakland Catholic added one more point to their run, the 8-0 burst putting it ahead 19-9.

The Eagles were up 10 again at 20-10 before Pope John Paul II ripped off four straight points. The Golden Panthers pulled to within four twice before Oakland Catholic had set point at 24-19 then won the final seven for another 26-24 win.

Oakland Catholic led 10-6 early in the third set but PJP II took the next seven points and never looked back. The Golden Panthers pushed their advantage to nine four times, the last at 24-15. The Eagles denied three match points before Pope John Paul II made it a fourth consecutive state crown with a 25-18 set win.