Mount de Sales' volleyball playoff run comes to end
The deeper that playoff run, the smaller the margin for error.
That theory played itself out on the volleyball court Tuesday night at McAuley Hall as a youthful Mount de Sales squad saw its season come to an end in the second round of the GHSA Class A playoffs, dropping a 3-1 decision to George Walton.
The Cavaliers held leads in three of the four sets but were only able to win only the second one, 25-12. The Bulldogs rallied to win 25-23 in the first set and overwhelmed their way to a 25-11 victory in the third set before prevailing 25-22 in a back-and-forth fourth set to clinch to match.
"Once you get into that elite 12, the teams are so equally yoked that it's an any given Sunday type of match. It all comes down to tempo and human error at the end of the day," Mount de Sales head coach BJ Dunwody said. "We had a few unforced errors in a row, and it caught up with us. They played like their hair was on fire, and that's all I can ask of them."
George Walton advances to the six-team championship round. The Cavaliers end their season at 31-13 and graduate just three seniors from a team that topped rivals Stratford and FPD en route to winning the Area 2-A title.
The Cavaliers led 18-11 in the first set, only to see the Bulldogs go on a 5-2 run to begin a comeback that would tie the score at 22 before pulling ahead to win the first set.
The Cavaliers turned the tide in the second set. An unreturned serve by Clare Braski and block by Triniti Sims sparked an early 3-1 Mount de Sales lead, and the Cavaliers kept the momentum, making it difficult for the Bulldogs to get in rhythm and return a high number of volleys. The largest Mount de Sales lead was 13 points at 20-7.
George Walton dashed Mount de Sales' chances of pulling ahead in the match, however, dominating the start of the third set, leading 12-2. The hole was too much for Mount de Sales to overcome, even after a string of seven consecutive points cut the margin to 20-11. The Bulldogs won the set, setting up a must-win situation for Mount de Sales in the fourth set with the Cavaliers needing a win to force a decisive fifth set in the match.
"They returned the favor doing the exact same thing to us, that just showed how equal we were," Dunwody said. "You had teams that both made mistakes but also could fight like crazy."
The fourth set featured eight lead changes and seven ties. Aside from a brief sequence, neither team led by more than three points. A point by Heath made it 6-2 in favor of Mount de Sales before George Walton bounced back, going ahead 10-9. An unreturned volley by Sims tied the score, vaulting the Cavaliers to lead 11-10 before three Bulldogs points in a row made it 13-11.
The latest lead in the set for the Cavaliers came with a 21-20 advantage on the heels of a point from Braski. But after an unreturned volley tied the score at 21, George Walton put the set and match away on a spike by Ashley Arthur, a Sarah Catoe block and a point by Mary Baxter.
This story was originally published October 20, 2015 at 9:45 PM with the headline "Mount de Sales' volleyball playoff run comes to end ."