St. Joseph girls volleyball team continues its rapid rise in Class A

By: Antonio Rossetti
Sunday, October 6, 2024 | 6:42 PM

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After winning nine of its first 11 matches, the St. Joseph girls volleyball team wants to ride the momentum and bring home its first section title.

“It would mean everything to me, especially playing all four years, and I’m one of three generations of my family to go to the school,” senior Elaina Moore said. “My dad (Damian Moore) was a really big basketball player there, so there’s a basketball banner for some of the years they won section championships. Having one up for me would just show my input and what we did to accomplish this, would just mean everything.”

In 2020, the Spartans went 0-12 in section play but since have turned things around in a big way. St. Joseph made the playoffs last year, and now coach Anne McCarthy wants her team to win a section title and get its first playoff victory.

“We don’t even have a volleyball banner in our gym,” McCarthy said. “This year our starting lineup is all club players. We fully plan to win the section, hopefully win a playoff game and put a banner up in the gym.”

St. Joseph is led by three senior captains: middle hitter Moore and outside hitters Veronica McCarthy and Sofia Quattrocchi.

“I’m just so lucky and glad that we get to be captains together,” Quattrocchi said. “Those are two friendships that started on the volleyball court, so to get to grow those on and off the court, and now to get to lead the team with them is just like an awesome experience. We just all have so much love and respect for each other, and I really feel like that shows on the court.”

The love the players have for each other has shown on the court. The Spartans competed in the Avonworth tournament, where they went 3-3 against larger schools, beating Fox Chapel, Steel Valley and Seton LaSalle.

Veronica McCarthy said that she is grateful to play with this group of girls through the years, and that their chemistry is great on and off the court.

“I feel like our chemistry has just been building and building to the point where we now feel confident, not only in our skills, but our leadership abilities,” McCarthy said. “We’ve applied all the lessons we’ve learned throughout our time playing together.”

Anne McCarthy commented on how big of an impact Moore and Quattrocchi have on the court.

“Elaina does a really good job getting blocks, especially considering, this year, we’ve lost a lot of height,” she said. “Last year, we had a 6-4 right side, a 6-2 middle and so now Elaina’s the tallest person on the team, and she definitely wears that as a badge of honor. She does an amazing job just getting up and getting blocks.”

Two of those players who graduated were Jamie Noonan and Emma Swierczewski. Nevertheless, coach McCarthy commented on how much Moore has stepped up.

“She brings height, which is really important in volleyball, but she has really taken up volleyball in her four years and after her sophomore year she started which was just huge for her,” McCarthy said. “She’s just become one of the best middles in all of 1A, and she’s such a positive influence on the team. She’s just really delightful to have.”

Quattrocchi has been playing with Veronica McCarthy since eighth grade.

“She just always has a very calm and collected and mature manner on the court,” Veronica McCarthy said. “She doesn’t let a lot get to her head, and she’s definitely our rock.”

Coach McCarthy watched Quattrocchi grow into the player that she is today.

“She’s played all four years since she was a freshman,” McCarthy said. “Her sister was the setter, and so she got some playing time with her sister, which is really special. And then she is just very inclusive.”

Quattrochi said playing with her sister, Sabrina, made an impact on her career.

“She actually inspired me to begin playing the sport, so it felt very full circle to play with her on the court,” Quattrochi said. “It’s really one of my fondest memories from my time on the team.”

Veronica, who is coach McCarthy’s daughter, is proud of how far she has come in volleyball and sees her as a tremendous captain.

“She is just a natural leader outside and it really translates well onto the court,” coach McCarthy said. “She remembers feeling intimidated as a freshman and a sophomore. She really took it upon herself to make sure that the freshmen and sophomores, when they step on the court, feel like they’re just as part of the team as the older kids. I could not ask for better leadership, and because of that, the team just has gelled.”

Junior Kate Gianetta is another player who has stepped up as a leader, playing as the setter and the middle.

“I saw a lot of improvement from her, because going into her freshman year, my sophomore year, she had a lot of pressure as a freshman,” Moore said. “Seeing her grow and become more confident on the court, she’s honestly become a strong leader of our team, too. I’ve seen such improvement for her, and she brings great energy on the court and it really keeps the team together.”

McCarthy said Emma Yingling, Kenzie Jones, Jillian Bloch and Miley Norris have shown great composure as sophomores.

Moore has enjoyed being a captain for the Spartans with the group of girls.

“I think that in the past, seeing how other people have led has given us an idea of how we can lead the team and to be able to captain together is amazing,” Moore said. “I’m so grateful that we were able to do that. I think that we’ve been leading the team really well, and, really, we’re really good at bringing the team up whenever we get down.”

Moore added the underclassmen have been a big boost to the team. Coach McCarthy sees the team playing as one unit.

“I was reading (San Antonio Spurs) coach (Greg) Popovich’s theories about winning teams, and the No. 1 is that you’re not an individual,” McCarthy said. “I have a team full of girls who play club. None of them play together outside the season on the court. They just love each other and play so hard for each other. My goal for them is that they figure out how to translate this into life because sports teach us so much about life and being on teams and accomplishing goals.”

Moore said having coach McCarthy as a coach gave her the love for volleyball again. Quattorcchi has enjoyed having her as coach.

“She’s probably the best coach I’ve had in my whole entire volleyball career,” Quattrocchi said. “She’s just so passionate about the sport. You can just tell she cares about you as a player and as a person, and it’s so evident. I feel like the team’s always had some kind of raw talent, but we really need direction, and she really provides that for us. There’s no doubt in my mind that we wouldn’t be the team that we are today without her.”

Their bond off the court is just as strong as on the court. Veronica mentioned they are planning to take a team trip to Hidden Valley.

“Practices really do take up a lot of time,” McCarthy said. “We’re practicing four or five days a week. The fact that we still want to be seeing each other outside of volleyball really just shows you how much we care about each other.”

Moore sees the change in culture and how everyone is starting to buy in to Spartans volleyball.

“I feel like people are starting to take us more seriously,” Moore said. “We don’t have a historically dominant program, but I think that that’s starting to change. The people in our school communities, they’re really excited, and they’re showing up to the games.”

Quattorocchi wants to keep the momentum rolling.

“We definitely got really good, really fast,” she said. “I think that’s a great thing, but I don’t want it to plateau here. We all have goals on the court, and we all care. We’re all putting the work on and off the court and, at the gym, the practice. I think we’re going to rise and not fall. I have faith that we’re just going to keep riding the tide.”

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