The atmosphere and intensity in Chuck Mosey Gymnasium for the volleyball match between the host Seton Catholic Cardinals and visiting Hagerstown Tigers played on Thursday, Sept. 5, was reminiscent of a state tournament match. The match between two teams looking for consistency was electrifying from beginning to end.
Both teams have great potential, but both have been inconsistent. The Tigers brought an interesting defensive strategy — they wanted to keep the ball away from Cardinal senior Bryn VanVleet as much as possible and force other players to make plays. It borders on impossible to stop VanVleet, a Cleveland State commit and all-state candidate. Teams can only hope to slow her.
The Tigers, who were underdogs entering the match, were the aggressors in the first set. Hagerstown broke from a 4-4 tie and never trailed again, building leads of as many as 12 points en route to a 25-17 win.
The second set was tied at 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and again at 17-17 before the Tigers pulled away to a 25-18 win.
The Cardinals took an early lead in the third set before the Tigers came back to tie the score at 8, 9 and 12 before racing to set point with a 24-16 lead. The Cardinals fought back with an improbable 8-0 run to tie the score at 24-24 before the Tigers responded with back-to-back scores to win the set 26-24, and close out the match.
Elly Cheeseman led the Tigers with 12 kills. Rylan Young led the Tigers with 14 digs. Emma Snodgrass and Ella Logston each handed out 13 assists. VanVleet avoided the special defense enough to deliver a match high of 20 kills for the Cards, running her career total to 1,338.
Seton Catholic head coach Emily Tremain said in post-game remarks that she had never seen a high school team use three blockers against one player.
“They were sending three blockers to the outside,” Tremain said. “I was impressed with Hagerstown’s defense. We can learn from this. I told our other hitters that they have to be a threat when teams key on Bryn (VanVleet).”
Hagerstown head coach Brian Dale, who described VanVleet as an outstanding player, said his team is capable of playing well. “When we are on, we are hard to beat. We played better tonight than we have all year and it came against a strong team.”
During the match VanVleet broke the Seton Catholic school record for career kills previously held by Sarah Dickman with 1,333. VanVleet was not the only record breaker in the match. Hagerstown sophomore Avery Slaven established a Hagerstown school record for blocks in a three-set match with nine.
Hagerstown (5-3) 25 25 26
Seton Catholic (6-4) 17 18 24
Hagerstown stat leaders — Assists: Logston 13, Snodgrass 13, Blocks: Slaven 9, Snodgrass 5, Allison Stinson 5, Olivia Klein 4, Raleigh Doerstler 3, Digs: Young 14, Kills: Cheeseman 12, Doerstler 9. Seton stat leaders — Assists: Bella Cornell 18, Taryn Tremain 14, Digs: VanVleet 8, Kills: VanVleet 20 — JV results: Hagerstown won 2-0.
A version of this article appeared in the September 11 2024 print edition of the Western Wayne News.