Hometown Girls Volleyball Recap – Bishop Canevin Crusaders – 10/23/2015

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, October 13, 2015 | 1:31 PM

What began as a seemingly meaningless non-class matchup between two of the top programs in class AA and A in girls volleyball turned into a fight to the finish between #3 Montour and #7 Bishop Canevin.  Bishop Canevin returned to its winning ways 3-2 with a decisive final set victory 15-6 after Montour had won the third and fourth sets.

Bishop Canevin carried a perfect record through the month of September, but as the calendar turned, the Crusaders dropped two of their first three section matches to Serra Catholic and Vincentian Academy.  BC appeared ready, focused, and into the game as if it were a section contest and was able to jump out and take the first set relatively handily 25-16.

The second, third, and fourth sets were decided by two points each.  Senior Bailey McDonald and Julia Menosky propelled the Crusaders to a 25-23 victory in the second set, showing a new wrinkle in the offense with Menosky setting McDonald, when it’s been the other way around all season. Both players finished the match with at least 9 kills, contributed to the team in a variety of ways:  setting, defending, and finishing kills themselves.  Both players were named All-State in 2014 and certainly back up those accolades against Montour.

Montour was not to be defeated that easily, the Spartans had only dropped a single set on route to becoming undefeated in section play and the #3 team in the MSA top ten in class AA.  The Spartans used their great size up front and two tall middle hitters, seniors Cecilia Esposito and Alexa Mitro.  Espositio standing at six feet three inches, and Mitro a six footer herself.

The duo combined for at least 20 kills, 8 of which came in set three, which Montour claimed 28-26.  Freshman Victoria Norton had perhaps her finest set of the evening with four kills of her own coming in the competitive third set.  Montour used a 9-1 run to take control set number three and build a 23-16 lead, but the Crusaders came storming back behind seniors Alex Parra, Anneliese Balog, Mcdonald, and Menosky.  BC fought off two Montour set points before serving for the match point, but Montour gathered itself and refused to bow out in a sweep after surviving a match point.

The fourth set featured 11 ties with the final deadlock at 18 with Montour controlling the lead the rest of the way, forcing a fifth and deciding set to 15 to determine a winner.  After such a dramatic and well-contested match, the final set did not play out like the previous three sets but the first set, with Bishop Canevin controlling the ball and jumping out a 10-3 lead.  Seniors Jayde Morrgan, Janet Aland, and Balog all chipped in with two kills apiece in the final set for BC to take the set and the match 3-2.

Both teams have busy weeks of section play ahead of them with Bishop Canevin taking on Brentwood and Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic Tuesday and Thursday, and Montour has Lincoln Park and Quaker Valley upcoming this week as well.  Each squad seeks to hold serve or improve their potential playoff seeding with strong finishes to the season, and both likely benefited from an extremely competitive match against stiff competition.

Tags: Bishop Canevin