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Wilson beats Berks Catholic to win second straight BCIAA girls volleyball title

Kassidy Means and her Wilson girls volleyball teammates carried the memory of their only loss into Tuesday night’s championship match against Berks Catholic.

The Saints swept the Bulldogs last month and made them look silly at times.

Means and Wilson made sure it didn’t happen again, winning 3-1 at West Lawn and taking their second straight BCIAA championship.

“That killed us,” Means said. “We were so motivated for this match, especially since this was for the championship. As a team we knew we didn’t play our best. We wanted to come back and redeem ourselves.”

The Bulldogs (18-1) dropped the first set 25-19 before taking the next three 25-18, 25-14, 25-19. They prevented Berks Catholic (18-2) from winning its first title since 2015.

“It’s a great accomplishment,” Means said. “We worked so hard to get to this point. It’s just an amazing feeling to do this again.”

The Bulldogs recalibrated after the first set and got all of their hitters involved in the offense the rest of the night. Cameryn Niedrowski delivered 50 assists, including the 1,000th of her career, and set up Means (22 kills), Bintou Sissoho (10), Airyanna Kline (10) and Rachel Etim (nine).

Wilson capitalized on its size advantage at the net in the final three sets.

“Their hitters started to show up in the second game,” Saints coach Lexi Leddy said. “We were lobbing balls over the net instead of hitting them. They have a lot of big swingers, a lot of tall girls.

“Once they started hitting kills, they started gaining confidence.”

After Sissoho fueled a late surge in the second set to tie the match, Maci Timochenko and Kline became more active in Wilson’s offense. Niedrowski, not known for her play at the net, had two blocks and set up Sissoho for the final point in a 25-14 win.

In the fourth set, the Saints jumped to a 13-6 lead behind the play of Caroline Reedy, Olivia Jones and setter Kate Barbon. The Bulldogs suddenly regrouped and scored 10 of the next 13 points to tie it.

After Barbon scored, Wilson reeled off the next six points to take command behind the hitting of Etim and Kline and the setting of Niedrowski. The Bulldogs sealed it on a service error by the Saints.

“We couldn’t pass well and they were passing well in the first set,” Wilson coach Denny Werner said. “We flipped that whole narrative in the last three sets.

“After the first set, I told Cam we had to get more of our hitters involved. We couldn’t rely solely on Kass. All of the girls were firing after that first set.”

Reedy had 16 kills and four blocks for the Saints, Jill Avadanian had 16 digs, Barbon had 40 assists, five kills and nine digs, and Jones had nine kills.

For Wilson, Niedrowski had five digs and two aces, Sissoho had three blocks and Adarah Danner had 19 digs.


Source: Berkshire mont

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