Cardinal Gibbons proves to be up to tall challenge
By EDWARD G. ROBINSON III,
The Raleigh News & Observer
6 November 2005
Staff Writer
RALEIGH - Expectations for the Cardinal Gibbons volleyball team grew to meteoric proportions before the season started. When outsiders talked about the Crusaders, they figured one of the tallest teams in the state would easily transition from a private school league into a 2-A public school conference, and waltz over the competition en route to a state championship. Well, those outside observers were correct about the seamless transition, but they were way wrong about it being easy to win a state title.
Gibbons needed its complete arsenal on Saturday -- including five players 6 feet or taller -- to hold off a disciplined and talented West Henderson (27-2) team in the N.C. High School Athletic Association 2-A championship at Reynolds Coliseum. The three-game victory -- 25-17, 25-22 and 25-23 -- ended a fabulous season for the Raleigh school and provided it a seventh state championship since it captured its first private school title in 1998. Gibbons (32-2) remained undefeated in state competition, dropping its only matches to out-of-state teams participating in the Archbishop Mitty Invitational tournament in San Jose, Calif., midway through the season.
The Crusaders dropped just two games to in-state competition this year.Saturday's championship came after a loss in the 2004 N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association 3-A state title match. Happy to win a NCHSAA title, the Crusaders wouldn't compare competition levels. "A championship is a championship," said Gibbons senior setter Christina Falcone [34 assists], who was named tournament MVP. "It's pretty cool when you win one."
Facing the two-time defending champs, the Crusaders never expected the match to be easy and, by all accounts, West Henderson presented them with one of the most difficult tasks this season. Sophomore Katie Camp lead the Crusaders with 19 kills.
"They weren't going to walk into it," Gibbons coach Jim Freeman said. "They were going to have to fight like crazy to win. They really had to engage mentally."
Staff writer Edward G. Robinson III can be reached at 829-4781 or robinson@newsobserver.com
West falls in an epic battle with Gibbons
Ron Wagner
Hendersonville Times-News Staff Writer
ron.wagner@hendersonvillenews.com
RALEIGH -- Trailing 23-20 in the all-important second game, West Henderson's defense, sporting nobody over 5-10, braced for another assault from the 6-foot, 4-inch Katie Camp. One Camp slam was rejected. Then another. Caroline Hammersly, measuring six feet even herself, gave it another try moments later, with the same result -- a West block. Amazingly, the set went to Camp for a third time in the rally, and amazingly, the Lady Falcons were there again, sending the kill attempt back where it came from to the stunned delight of a frenetic crowd hoarse with excitement and cutting the lead to 23-21.
But there would be no Rocky Balboa upset on this day, no toppling of this invincible, towering Russian. With ruthless efficiency, Cardinal Gibbons simply reloaded the cannon for Camp on the next serve, and West couldn't withstand another blow. This time, Camp found the court with a swooping spike, giving the Crusaders a battle victory that was a microcosm of the way they won their 2-A state championship war on Saturday -- with blow after blow after blow that not even this remarkably determined, remarkably well-coached opponent could withstand.
Outclassed physically in virtually every way, West saw its title streak end at two at the hands of Cardinal Gibbons, 25-17, 25-22, 25-23, in a rugged match that left both teams exhausted and the volleyball balance of power shifted from the mountains to a private school in Raleigh that rejoined the NCHSAA this year after capturing six NCISAA championships in seven years. The Lady Falcons certainly didn't make it easy for their taller, deeper opponents, battling the Crusaders tooth and nail from beginning to end. But when all was said and done a Cardinal Gibbons team loaded with experienced players with major Division I talent simply had too many weapons.
"It hurts and it's tough to lose, especially when you've only lost one game all season. But the girls went out there and played as hard as they could, and our goal from the very beginning was to get here and we got here," West coach Jan Stanley said. "We had a tough team to play against."
Facing a squad with a setter headed to Duke, a defensive specialist bound for Wake Forest and a front line measuring 6-4, 6-4, 6-2, 6-0, 6-0, West was the clear underdog despite its 27-1 record and history of success. And Cardinal Gibbons was just as good as advertised. The Crusaders pounded the Lady Falcons with their height, but they really won the match thanks to the play of Sara Uniacke, who had 20 digs, setter Christina Falcone, the match MVP, and tremendous serving throughout the lineup that made getting the offense going a constant chore for West.
The Lady Falcons, accustomed to devastating scoring runs, never managed more than two points in a row in either of the first two games and several times appeared on the verge of going down for good -- only to bounce back up and start swinging again. West took 2-1 and 3-2 leads in the first game and matched Cardinal Gibbons kill for kill (each team had 12), but in the end 12 Lady Falcon errors compared to five for the Crusaders were the difference as West fell in a quick hole.
From there, however, the intensity picked up as both squads put on a stirring display of superior performance. Neither would back down from the other's challenge, and the result was an astonishing stretch of haymakers. Gibbons and West literally traded point for point to start the second game until the score stood at 7-7. The Crusaders then crept ahead 9-7 before the Lady Falcons jumped on top 11-10 and 13-11 on back-to-back dink kills from Tarah Pridmore, only to see Gibbons tear off three straight points of its own thanks to two kills from Camp. From that point, there were five more ties and two more lead changes, with West taking a 19-17 lead on Lindsey Pate's block. But as they did all day, the Crusaders refused to allow the Falcons any momentum, ripping off six of the next seven points to go up 23-20 and finishing off the game.
A lesser team would have folded after having its hopes dashed, but not West. The Lady Falcons instead rallied again, leading 2-0, 4-3, 8-6, 9-7, 10-8 and 11-9 in the third before going on their only run of the match -- a 7-3 burst that made it 18-13 and had the fans believing an upset was still possible. To their credit, however, the Crusaders regrouped and matched West's intensity with superior talent. Camp again did the damage, sparking a 7-1 Gibbons run with three more kills followed by two Hammersly aces that put the Crusaders back up 20-19. West struggled to tie the match three more times, at 20-20, 21-21 and 22-22, but Gibbons wouldn't be denied. Hammersly's kill finally ended things following a brief rally.
Cardinal Gibbons coach Jim Freeman said he expected a tough battle. "I knew that they would be an extremely difficult team to beat," he said. "This is certainly one of the best teams we've ever played. ... It sounds like a cliche, but I have great respect for West Henderson and their program. I knew they were going to come in and really compete, and I knew that winning was going to be one of the hardest things that we've done in a long time."
The final numbers were fairly even. West was good on just 30 of 113 kill attempts, poor by the Lady Falcons' standard…[typo in the newspaper's online edition]
[Lindsay Pate] had [10] fearless kills as well as six [solo ]blocks despite standing just 5-8.
Camp, only a sophomore, led Gibbons with 16 kills, while Katie Kabbes, also a 6-4 sophomore, had 13 digs. Tara Enzweiler had 10 kills.
West hitter Lauren Ficker, who had six kills, said she and her teammates did not fear Gibbons "I don't think we find (the height) intimidating much, because we're around it a lot in club. We face girls that are a whole lot taller than us, so height does not intimidate you. They do have advantages -- they can hit over our blocks -- but we have people who can dig 'em up still," she said. "We knew how tall they were, we knew how they played. We knew they were good. Going out there, what we saw is what we expected."
With the bevy of talent he put on the court, Freeman seems prepared for criticism from people who think the Crusaders, who finished 32-2 with both losses to California teams, aren't playing on a level field. But he insists he and his program have just had the good fortune of a remarkable run of talent.
"We have a really good reputation in our area for doing things the right way in terms of athletics. I know a lot of people talk about private schools and recruiting and things like that, but we wouldn't have gotten back into the state association if any of that kind of stuff was going on," he said. "We did not have that type of reputation. People who know us know we play really straight."
Stanley said no matter how talented her team's opponent, as long as she's in charge her players will expect to come out on top. "A lot of people just want to win one game off of us. I would never have that. Our goal is to get down here and win," she said. "We were down here and we gave it everything we've got, and somebody had to lose. I hate it that it was us, but it doesn't take anything away from what our season was about this year. We beat everybody, and it was just incredible what they did."
West Henderson falls in championship
Cardinal Gibbons uses height to sweep Falcons
by Jason McGill, ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES STAFF WRITER
November 6, 2005 6:00 am
RALEIGH - Jan Stanley can't recall the last time her West Henderson volleyball team was swept. It could be as much as four or five years ago, but it certainly hasn't happened in the time her Falcons team won two consecutive NCHSAA Class 2-A championships.
That is, until Stanley and company faced a pair of 6-foot-4 Katies and the Cardinal Gibbons Crusaders on Saturday afternoon at Reynolds Coliseum on the campus of N.C. State.
West Henderson lost 3-0 (25-17, 25-22, 25-23) to Cardinal Gibbons, which had dropped just two games all year to North Carolina teams and just two matches in a California-based tournament. The loss dashed West Henderson's chance at a three-peat, something only six NCHSAA schools have done in the past 19 years.
Katie Camp and Katie Kabbes patrolled the net for the Crusaders, and tallied a combined [22] kills. That total would've been much higher were it not for the incredible play of West Henderson senior defensive specialist Bridgett Holliday, who finished with 24 digs in a game that featured back-and-forth play throughout. The largest lead for either team was the eight-point margin Cardinal Gibbons (32-2) used to edge West Henderson (27-2) in the first game.
"The girls played as hard as they could," said Stanley, whose Falcons returned just one starter from an undefeated 2004 squad. "We did good things against them and they did good things against us. I couldn't ask for anything more. We got beat by a great team."
The physical advantage was obvious from the start. West Henderson's tallest players are senior Lauren Fickerand sophomore Laura Ann Huskey, both of whom are 5-10. Junior setter Brooke Stanley is next at 5-9, while the Crusaders featured seven players taller than 5-10.
"We didn't find them intimidating," said Ficker, who recorded six kills. "They can hit over our blocks, but we had girls who can dig it up. We knew how tall they were (and) we knew how good they were from the start."They were everything we expected."
The Falcons suffered through a slow start in the first game, hitting stray kills and several serves into the net. Cardinal Gibbons capitalized on the miscues, and capped the opening game with a 4-0 run, but West Henderson never appeared overwhelmed. The teams traded points throughout the final two games, and the largest leads were 3 for Cardinal Gibbons and 5 for West Henderson.
"I thought we did everything we had to do to win," Jan Stanley said. "It hurts. It's tough to lose (but) these girls are made of rock and steel. It doesn't take anything from what our year was this year."
The Falcons appeared to have a grasp of Game 3, as Brooke Stanley - Jan's daughter - showcased her signature dinks and sets. But an 18-13 lead slipped into a tie when the Crusaders scored eight of the next 10 points, including two of their six total aces. Cardinal Gibbons pulled even at 21-21 on a kill from Camp, which sparked yells of "dig deep" from Jan Stanley. But it wasn't enough as Caroline Hammersly smashed a kill off Holliday for the win.
"We knew it'd be a great team, great coach, great bunch of players and great tradition," Cardinal Gibbons coach Jim Freeman said. "Winning was going to be one of the hardest things we've done in a long time. I knew they'd be prepared. We feel very fortunate. They are one of the best teams we've ever played."
West Henderson's Lindsey Pate finished with a team-high [ten] kills and six [solo] blocks.
Cardinal Gibbons, which is once again playing in the NCHSAA after a stint in the NCISAA, got 20 digs from Sara Uniacke - a Wake Forest recruit - and nine kills from Tara Enzweiler."It was almost an advantage at times because we got to play real volleyball," Enzweiler said. "We like to play teams that push us so we can push back."
Contact Jason McGill via e-mail at jmcgill@ashevill.gannett.com
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