Garnet Valley set to begin defense of state volleyball title

CONCORD >> When Amber Goldberg breaks the Garnet Valley volleyball huddle Tuesday night, much will look familiar to the senior libero.

The Jaguars will be back in the PIAA Class 4A tournament that they won last year. They’ll be far from home, traveling a western path through the bracket thanks to a fifth-place finish in District 1, same as last fall.

And the girls around the senior libero will be the ones who filled the Garnet Valley buses on lengthy road trips through Central and Western Pa. last year. Well, sort of.

“I feel like we have everything that we had last year,” Goldberg was saying Friday, after the Jags beat Spring-Ford, 3-0, to clinch their states berth. “It’s not really much of a change but it’s playing with new people that we played with on JV.”

Goldberg, Rachel Cain and outside hitter Erin Patterson were part of the squad that marched to the championship last November, primarily understudies to a troika of All-Delcos. And the rest of the Garnet Valley roster that will line up Tuesday night at Manheim Township High School against District 3 champ Hempfield? They made up a pretty good JV team last year.

That’s the downside for coach Mark Clark of having a special group like his class of 2017, composed of nine contributing seniors. But writ large for a program that put itself on the statewide map with last year’s first state title, the Jaguars’ ability to return to states with essentially a completely different squad underscores that its developmental strength doesn’t just comprise one kismet class.

“It’s obviously a completely different team,” Goldberg said. “But it gives us that pride. All those girls were with us practicing, so they were always with us, they were cheering us on last year. All of us last year were still a team. They were with us through states last year.”

This year’s Jags (17-5) follow the same blueprint as last year. Last year’s team was anchored by its defense, epitomized by a mind-boggling 116 digs collected in the five-set state final win over Parkland. Lizzie Herestofa, the 2016 Daily Times Girls Volleyball Player of the Year, led the defensive brilliance, while All-Delco setter Gabby Davis distributed to a varied attacking corps with no standout star but a passel of imposing options (led by All-Delco Sydney Portale).

The 2017 iteration of the Jaguars is cut from the same cloth, though the balance of power shifts toward the attacking side. Again, there’s no single offensive threat that an opponent can key on, assured that bottling her up will undermine the Jags’ attack. And the squad adheres to the mentality Clark instills down the years – defensive specialists who can pass, attackers who can defend.

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