There really isn’t an easy or nice way to say this, but the volleyball season ended for the GPS Bruisers Tuesday evening as they lost a tough match to the Pope John Paul II Lady Saints in four sets.  Two pretty evenly matched teams where the Lady Knights were just a little bit better on this occasion.

It was an especially tough ending for seven GPS seniors as their last season ended with a record of 16-11.  The Lady Saints improve to 18-14 and now focus their attention on a match with Father Ryan on Saturday for the right to play in next week’s state tournament. Ryan has won the first three matches they’ve played this fall, but Saturday is the one that counts.

GPS coach Steve Nicola just hated for a memorable season to end this way.

“That was a tough one,” he said following the match where the Lady Saints prevailed by scores of 26-24, 15-25, 27-25 and 25-14.

“I thought we played tough, but they were a really scrappy team.  There are times when I hate playing teams like that because it’s hard to get a ball down on them.  There were moments when we played great and beautiful, but this just isn’t the way we wanted our season to end.

“Hats off to them as they played a great match,” Nicola concluded.

Lady Saints head coach Elizabeth Waltrip was all smiles after her team did what was necessary to advance.

“That was a great win for us as we just ran away with it at the end,” she began with a huge smile while her girls posed for pictures with each other.

“Our energy was positive for the entire match and that may have been our biggest keys, but we just had to have confidence in our own ability and I think we did that.  But this was a great team effort and I’m extremely proud of them,” she added.

We all know just how important momentum is in a sport like volleyball.  Perhaps the first big shift took place in the opening set when GPS had the upper hand most of the way and had a seemingly-comfortable 24-22 lead before Waltrip called her second timeout.

Maddie Hobbs recorded a kill to get PJP within a point before a block from Greta Vonderharr tied it.  Those two then recorded back-to-back kills to give the visitors the early lead.

The Bruisers may have down at that point, but certainly not out, as they came out swinging in the second set and quickly built a 6-1 lead behind two kills and a block from Catie Nicola.  That lead only got bigger and was 12-4 before the Lady Knights rallied to get within three at 13-10.

GPS then put the set away by scoring eight of the next nine points, including three straight kills from Nicola. The biggest lead for the Bruisers was 23-11.  A hitting error a minute later by the Lady Saints allowed the Bruisers to even the match at one set apiece.

The third set was probably the best of the match as there were eight ties and four lead changes.

A kill by Nicola gave GPS a 23-21 lead before a kill from Olivia Specht and a block by Audrey Mewbourne tied it at 23.  Another kill from Mewbourne tied it for the last time at 25-25 before an ace by Ella Fisher put the visitors up by a point before gaining the upper hand with another close wind.

The fourth set was close for a bit before the Lady Knights took complete control.  There were 10 ties and three lead changes, a service error by PJP knotting the score for the last time at 11-11.

It was all Pope John Paul the rest of the way as back-to-back aces from Mewbourne put the Lady Knights up 20-12 and leading to the final timeout by GPS.

A service error by GPS put the Lady Knights at match point before a block from Abby Brizzolara ended it.

No official stats were available for Pope John Paul, but Mewbourne unofficially had 14 kills while Specht and Vonderharr both had 11.  Vonderharr also had four blocks and joined Ella Fisher with three aces apiece.

Nicola had 18 kills for GPS while Cat Nygaard had 27 digs.  Sophia Jenkins had a great final match to finish with 39 assists, 15 digs, three kills, three blocks and an ace.  Brynn Goldsmith also had three blocks.

POPE JOHN PAUL STATS:

None available.

GPS STATS:

Brynn Goldsmith – 6 kills, 2 digs, 3 blocks

Kendall Nati – 6 kills, 2 digs, 1 block

Ellie Holland – 11 digs

Sophia O’Keefe – 7 kills, 14 digs

Catie Nicola – 18 kills, 10 digs

Cat Nygaard – 27 digs 7 assists, 1 ace

Morgan Moore – 10 kills, 4 digs 1 block

Sophia Jenkins – 3 kills, 15 digs, 3 blocks, 39 assists, 1 ace.

(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)