History was both made and repeated itself in the same volleyball match. Perryville snapped several Rising Sun winning streaks with a stirring five-set comeback victory Thursday night, October 11. The Panthers triumphed over the previously undefeated Tigers 22-25, 18-25, 25-11, 25-17, 15-10. It's the first time Perryville has defeated Rising Sun in more than 16 years. The Panthers won a five-setter back on October 1, 2002. The Tigers had last lost a conference match October 24, 2012 vs. C. Milton Wright.
"It's crazy," Perryville's sensational setter Jordan Carr said. "I've never experienced anything like this in my life. It's so fun. Out there on the count, point for point, you don't know what's going to happen, but winning that point or losing that point, it's such a rollercoaster." Although the victor was different in this year's second Panthers-Tigers contest, the match played out precisely like the first matchup had. In the first meeting this season, Perryville captured the first two sets before Rising Sun roared back to win. "I'm just happy for the girls," Perryville coach Matt Borrelli said. "We've been talking a lot about mental toughness and perseverance. To go down 2-0, our focus was, let's win this next set. Let's not worry about winning three in a row. Let's focus on one set at a time…Jordan just dominated the game with her serving in the third set and that really gave us so much momentum going into the fourth. I'm happy for the girls because they deserve it." Carr collected 26 assists, five aces, and two blocks. Alex Leslie provided 14 kills and eight aces. Rebecca Holman supplied seven kills and Melissa Savin 19 digs and three aces. Sophia Eckerd led Rising Sun with 18 kills and Emily Jackson added 11. After dropping the first set, Perryville led set two 8-1, 15-5, and 18-14 before Rising Sun reeled off the last 11 points, including 10 straight service points by Breelyn Young. Borrelli acknowledged he was a bit concerned about how his team would react after squandering a big lead. "Because it seemed like we were getting down a little bit and Rising Sun serves amazing and we were really struggling just to pass serves," said Borrelli. "So I was hoping that would change. Thankfully for us, it did. Then it turned out we started having stronger serving and we were able to make some better passes off their serves." The Tigers tallied the first three points of the third set before Perryville seized command. "It's a game of momentum," Rising Sun coach Rich Wilson said. "And the shifts come fast. The two long service runs we had in game two, that's unusual. The law of averages has to balance out there somewhere. So, am I surprised they came back? No. They're a good team. They've got a lot of hustle. We made a lot of mistakes. Games like this you can see our youth. Bunch of sophomores and juniors. We're not a senior-heavy team at all, at least the six or seven on the floor. Libero (Breelyn Young) is really the only senior [who has been with the program for four years]." Once the Panthers acquired momentum, they never surrendered it. "Third game then the fourth becomes a real rubber match," Wilson said. "Of course, the fifth is just a crapshoot. Thought we could pull it out there for a while but ..." Perryville started strong in both the fourth and fifth games and led throughout. "This is our seniors' last time playing Rising Sun," Carr said. "We just really wanted to come out determined and we were ready to play them. We worked on everything we struggled with the last time we played them. We focused on everything on the court, put balls down, and got serves in. That's what got us the win." After falling behind 0-2, both Borrelli and Carr were thinking about what had transpired September 18. Borrelli chose to focus on the near future instead of reminding his squad of the Tigers' comeback that night. "It was going in my mind," Borrelli said. "But I didn't want them to over-think and plan for three sets and be overwhelmed. I knew we needed to win one set at a time." Carr saw that first encounter as an example of what was possible. "We thought back to the last time we played them," she said. "We were up 2-0 and they came back and won it. We figured we could do the same thing they did. They did it. Why couldn't we do it?" Wilson said he isn't preoccupied with streaks and was pleased to have another closely contested regular season match. "I told the girls in the huddle, 'This why we play, right?'," Wilson said. "This is what I like to see in Cecil County in every match. It's more fun. The girls will tell you this is more fun. Win or lose, this is just a lot more fun. Yeah, it'll bother them until they're halfway home on the bus. Then they'll be singing and carrying on." Perryville earned the right to carry on after victory had been secured. "Oh, God," Holman said. "We were so nervous on that last point. When we got it, it was the best feeling of our lives. Overcoming a big team like that, they do so well against every other team, and we're just happy we were one of the teams that could win." Perryville 3, North East 1 The Panthers upended the Indians 25-6, 25-12, 21-25, 25-12 Tuesday, October 9. Jordan Carr provided 18 assists, eight aces, and six kills. Alex Leslie had 12 kills, Rebecca Holman contributed six, and Gracey Stevens had five. Rising Sun 3, North East 0 The Tigers swept the Indians 25-10, 25-14, 25-9 Monday, October 8. Sophia Eckerd led Rising Sun with eight kills. Lexi Gordon supplied five kills, and Emily Jackson chipped in four to go along with 14 assists. Megan Hoyle had eight assists. Breelyn Young served six aces and Lauren Hudson provided five. Comments are closed.
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