Holy Cross edges Roanoke Catholic in five-game duel

If Holy Cross had any type of edge, it had to be experience.

In terms of talent, the Gaels likely could have swapped uniforms with Roanoke Catholic and no one would have noticed the difference. After all, both teams do wear green.

Experience, though, in the form of eight Holy Cross seniors, would be the ultimate decider in a No. 4 vs. No. 5 quarterfinal VISAA, Division 3, volleyball matchup. Led by their senior core, the fourth-seeded Gaels eked out a gutty 20-25, 25-18, 22-25, 27-25, 15-7 home victory over the visiting Celtics.

After dropping the first game despite leading 10-5, the Gaels again jumped out on top in the second game. However, the lead never grew bigger than three points and the Celtics were down only by one late, 16-15. Senior Katelynn Duncan almost single-handedly would power the Gaels down the stretch, scoring four of their last eight points, including a game-ending spike, to even the match.

“We have eight seniors on our team and they really came through tonight. When it was clutch time, they put some balls down and that took us home,” Gaels coach Mark Haskew said.

“I think we all had our jitters and we got it all out in the first game. We just pushed hard and wanted it really bad,” Duncan said.

The senior hitter was again a star late in the third game, producing a pair of aces to tie the score at 19. However, three Gael errors after that point were too much to overcome and the Celtics held on 25-22.

Facing elimination, Holy Cross turned to not only Duncan, but the rest of their senior-laden lineup in game four. Early on, Duncan would deliver a jump-serve that nicked the service line for an ace and follow it up moments later with a spike from the back line to give the Gaels an early 7-5 lead.

In the middle of the match, Sandy Serio and Layney Sandifer delivered a pair of key blocks to keep Holy Cross on top. A Serio kill would put the Gaels ahead 21-18 and allowed Holy Cross to put their best hitters in the front row for the stretch run. They would deliver, with Duncan and Serio combining for three kills to stay even with the charging Celtics, who came back from four down to take a 25-24 lead.

With the match on the line, Duncan slammed an outside set from Emily Hickey past the Celtics defense and a Hickey ace would put the Gaels ahead 26-25. On the next play, Mairin Guilfoyle’s return went into the net to give the Gaels the match-tying 27-25 win. According to both Haskew and Duncan, though the two teams were evenly matched, the Gaels’ intensity was what separated them.

“I told them in a timeout in this match that at this point it’s more about aggressiveness, hustle, intensity, who wants it more … we could have collapsed mentally and we didn’t,” Haskew said.

“We fought really hard. We talked about it in the beginning and we just really wanted this and didn’t want our season to end,” Duncan added.

Holy Cross made sure of that in the fifth set tie-breaker, opening up a 10-4 lead, their biggest of the night, thanks again to Duncan, who had four kills in the final set.

Duncan finished with 21 kills and 11 digs. Serio produced 12 kills, two aces and two blocks and Hickey, the Gaels’ setter, distributed 41 assists. The Celtics were led by Mairin Guilfoyle’s eight kills and five aces as well as Aidan Guilfoyle, who had eight kills along with one block.