[Baltimore Sun] Howard volleyball’s undefeated ends with loss to Wootton in state semifinals
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BURTONSVILLE — Before his match in the Class 3A state volleyball semifinals, Howard coach Grant Scott said the team that made the fewest mistakes would win the match. Unfortunately for Scott and his Lions, that team was Thomas Wootton.
The Patriots used an impressive front line and an opportunistic offense to defeat Howard, 26-24, 25-26, 25-19 at Paint Branch.
For the Lions (18-1), the season ends two games short of their state championship goal. The Patriots (16-3), they will meet North Hagerstown, which won the other Class 3A semifinal over Northern of Calvert County.
“Credit to Wootton; they played amazing,” Scott said. “They played almost mistake-free volleyball. They forced us into situations where we couldn’t run our offense. That put us in situations where we started to make mistakes.”
For Howard, the loss ends one of the most celebrated runs in the school’s history. It was the Lions’ first trip to the state semifinals since 1980 when Howard won a state title.
Both teams played a tight first set. Howard trailed midway through the set but caught the Patriots on a service error to tie the set at 22. After the teams traded points, Howard’s Kaleigh Williams (3 kills, 1 block, 4 digs) hit a tip kill that eluded the Patriots defense and gave the Lions a 24-23 advantage.
It looked like Howard had won the set on the next ball, but officials ruled a Wootton kill just inside the end line to tie the match at 24. The Patriots then got a serving ace from Haile Ma and a kill from Naima Cho-Khaliq to take the first set, 26-24.
“It was a big deal for us to get that first-set win,” Wootton coach Mary Malinauskas said. “Once we got that, we felt like we could execute our game plan better.”
That’s exactly what happened. Wooton played much looser on offense and the Patriots took full advantage of a bigger front which feature several athletic hitters who took control the net. Howard struggled in the second set and saw Wootton pull away to a 17-10 lead.
The Lions did manage to cut the margin to 17-13 but got no closer as Wootton pulled away to win 25-16.
The first part of the third set was played very tightly. With the teams tied at 5, Wootton used a serving run by Ma to go on a 7-1 run and take a 12-6 lead. A combination of Howard mistakes and Wootton filling the holes in its defense allowed the Patriots to hold on. Howard fought off three match points at the end of the set, but dropped the set and the match, 25-19.
“This is really disappointing,” junior McKenna Brown, who finished with 12 kills said. “I feel like all the errors from our blocking were what did us in in the end. We didn’t come in with the same passion that we come into other games with, either.”
The loss was especially hard for Howard’s core of seniors.
“In the first set, we were really excited to be on the court for the semifinals, but after we lost [the first set], we let up,” senior Riley Poholsky (2 aces, 6 digs), said. “I think our whole demure just dropped and we weren’t converting on the plays we needed to.”
For Wootton, the Patriots now have a chance to avenge a loss to two-time defending state champions North Hagerstown in last year’s playoffs. Malinauskas knows they will have their hands full.
“Hopefully we approach them the same way we did this one,” she said. “We played them in the state quarterfinals last year, and we took a set from them. We’ll see what happens this year.”
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