Perryville volleyball coach Matt Borrelli compared his program to the Buffalo Bills referring to the fact that the NFL team played in four straight Super Bowls without winning one. If the Panthers are like the Bills then Smithsburg can be compared to the San Francisco 49ers. Seeking its first state title, Perryville was swept by 10-time champion Smithsburg Friday night at Ritchie Coliseum in College Park. The Leopards triumphed 25-9, 25-13, 25-12. "Well obviously we didn't play our best volleyball," Borrelli said at the post-match press conference. "A lot of that credit goes to Smithsburg, the way that they hit, the way they play as a team. They really did a good job getting us out of system. Our offense had been clicking really well the last few games, all through the playoffs. That's been a big stretch for us setting up our hits. And they just did a great job. We didn't really set up our offense. It's a credit to how good (Smithsburg) played as a team. So, unfortunately it didn't go our way, but I'm so proud of this team for the way that they played all season. Even though we lost, these are the 12 girls I want on the court with me. I wouldn't trade them for any other team."
Smithsburg's serving perplexed Perryville enabling the Leopards to pull away in each game. "They're a very good serving team," said outside hitter Rebekah Hanshaw. "Their serves are hard and they're fast and they're very skilled and good serves. I don't know, I think we almost let them get into our heads a little bit too much and that was our problem. They were a good serving team. There was nothing really we could do and we had trouble setting up our offense." Borrelli echoed those comments. "I'd say that was definitely the best serving we've seen all season" said the coach "There may be a player here or there on a team that we had to struggle with but they had three or four really, really good servers. Like Bekah said, it was hard to set up our offense with such good serving that we had to try to pass." Perryville finished the season with a record of 17-3 but did not play a team close to the caliber of Smithsburg. "Playing (against a lower level of competition) doesn't really get us prepared for states," senior libero Kaylan Smith said. 'But as we moved onto regionals we started getting used to it every game, how much harder (it was) and we had to work for it to win." Perryville has lost to Smithsburg in the state finals three of the last four years. Borrelli says the Panthers are getting closer to be at the Leopards' level. "We're kind of like the Buffalo Bills of high school volleyball at this point," the coach said. "We're getting here and that's awesome. I think we have such a strong group of sophomores on our team right now (including Teri Wennersten, Gabby Goodnow, and setter Rose Porch) and we had such good leadership from our seniors this year to mentor and really show the sophomores how to play that we're just going to get better. Halfway through the season and up until this point we grew leaps and bounds from where we were at the beginning of the season. A lot of our girls are going to play club ball this winter and then that's going to help. Just the fact that there's going to be some consistency with this group playing together, they're going to jell, and they're going to keep working, and they're going to get better as a team. So I expect us over the next two years to really take off and to be really strong. It would've been nice to win this one for (seniors) Kaylan and Kylie (Shiflett) and Megan (Davidson) but the future is really bright. We're going to get better from here." Wennersten thinks next season could be the season. "Well we got farther this year than we got last year and we expect to get farther than we got this year next year," she said. "I'm excited."
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