Volleyball: Garnet Valley tops Archbishop Carroll in volleyball playoff tune-up

RADNOR — Anyone who thought Garnet Valley’s 3-1 victory over Archbishop Carroll Wednesday night was nothing more than a nonleague match to fill out the volleyball schedule at the end of the regular season was sadly mistaken.

The showdown between two of the top teams in the area was a tune-up for the District 1 and Catholic League tournaments, which start next week.

“I’ll go and play a game like this any time,” Carroll coach Brian McCann said. “That’s a great team, and Greg is a great coach. It was two really good teams slugging it out. It was a really good match.”

“It was a great test,” Garnet Valley coach Greg Wood said. “That’s why we wanted to play it now, right before the playoffs. They’re a scrappy team, good players all around.”

Wednesday was everything you would expect from a Garnet Valley team that just completed its third straight undefeated run through the Central League and is ranked eighth in the Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association Class 4A poll and a Carroll squad that is vying for its third consecutive Catholic League title.

The Jaguars (16-2) had to dig deep to come out with the 25-20, 27-25, 23-25, 25-18 victory. Garnet Valley overcame a six-point deficit in the first set and climbed out of five-point hole in the second to extend its winning streak to five.

“We didn’t pass the way we normally do, which hurt us,” Wood said, “but we were able to dig out of it with some good serving and some good blocking.”

Wanting a little payback for a five-set loss to the Patriots a year ago didn’t hurt, either.

“There always is a little revenge when you lose the year before,” senior Gwen Clark said. “The big thing, for us as a team, was that we were able to come back and win after being down in those first couple of sets.”

Clark had a hand in the rally. She was on the service line during a seven-point run in the first set that turned a 16-13 deficit into a 20-16 lead. The Patriots (14-3) cut the deficit to 21-20 before Sam Mann slammed one of her 15 kills to start a four-point run to clinch the set.

Mann also had the final **** as the Jaguars crawled out of a pair of five-point holes in the second set to take a 2-0 lead. Mann had four blocks and a staggering .737 hitting percentage.

Fellow senior Emma Rokosky finished with 10 kills, 12 digs and three aces. Ally Hartney collected eight kills, five blocks and had a .500 hitting percentage. Alanna Hagerty added eight kills and one block. All-Delco setter Rachel Cain dished out 41 assists and registered five digs.

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Archbishop Carroll’s Paige Monastero, left, hits a ball into the block of Garnet Valley’s Rachel Cain, center, and Ally Hartney Wednesday. The Jaguars picked up a 3-1 nonleague win. (Pete Bannan/Digital First Media)