With ‘little things’ down, Garnet Valley wins fifth straight Central League volleyball title

LOWER MERION — Some things never change.

Anyone who has played volleyball for Mark Clark over the years, either at Penncrest or Garnet Valley, has heard him yell, “Little things,” from the sideline too many times to count.

“That’s his slogan,” Garnet Valley senior outside hitter Caitlyn Hagerty said. “He says that to keep us on our toes.”

With Garnet Valley trailing Lower Merion in the third set of the Central League volleyball final Saturday at the Bryant Gymnasium, Clark turned to his go-to saying more than a few times to get the Jaguars back on track mentally.

Clark would yell out those same instructions again several times in the fourth set, always with a purpose.

“We’re not worrying about the big kills,” Clark said. “We’re worrying about covering our hitters, being there for the over-passes, if they happen, shifting to our proper spots on defense, calling the ball, communicating with each other, all the little things. They add up to the great passes, the great sets, the big kills. If you do all the little things correctly, everything else falls into place.”

Clark’s constant reminders paid off as the Jaguars rallied from a four-point deficit in the third set and climbed out of a three-point hole late in the fourth to win their fifth straight league title with a gritty 3-1 triumph over the Aces.

“We were making mistakes,” Hagerty said. “There were service errors, and we weren’t really playing as a team. After the second set we were like, ‘OK, let’s do this. We have to fight.’ We got back on the court and fought. We were doing the little things right, as Mr. Clark likes to say. We were talking and doing almost everything right.”

The payoff was a 25-23, 25-27, 25-23, 25-22 victory over a Lower Merion team that handed Garnet Valley its only loss of the season and was looking for its first league volleyball title.

Behind the strong play of outside hitter Abbie Lane, middle hitters Jasmine Plack and Sophia Shin, setter Sara Beqiraj and libero Talia Bierschwale, and a solid defensive performance, the Aces (10-2) pushed the Jaguars (11-1) to the limit.

After winning the second set, Lower Merion had an 18-14 advantage in the third set and a 19-16 edge in the fourth set.

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