The west was best. Again. For the fifth straight season, the Perryville volleyball team was ousted from the state tournament by a team from the west region. Smithsburg eliminated the Panthers on four of those occasions, the latest a 25-14, 25-14, 25-17 triumph in the state semifinals Tuesday night, November 17 at Ritchie Coliseum on the campus of the University of Maryland. "Obviously this wasn't how we wanted to end the season but I have to say I couldn't be more proud," Perryville coach Matt Borrelli said at the post-match press conference. "There's absolutely no shame in losing to a team like Smithsburg. Fifteen-time champions (actually 10 heading into Friday's final). They're a great team and we have a lot of respect for them and their program. And I think our girls fought really hard. We had a great season and just because we lost [Tuesday night], that doesn't put a damper on things. I'm very proud of our girls for how they played. And Smithsburg's a great team and there's no shame in losing to that good of a team. I thought we challenged them. I thought we made things difficult for them. And we can walk out of here with our heads held high knowing that we gave our best effort. We put a gameplan together and it worked. We just couldn't outlast them. They're a good team and they deserved to win." The highlight for Perryville came when it took a 10-6 lead in the opening game. "We wanted to go in confident and I'm proud that we did go in that confident," said junior middle hitter Teri Wennersten. "I thought we played really well." Smithsburg responded with 11 consecutive points to take command. "I think the biggest thing we need to improve is just our serve receive," said Borrelli. "We let other teams go on seven-, eight-, nine-point service runs and that just kills any momentum that we have. That's something that we work on a lot in practice, but that's still an area where we obviously need to improve." In both the second and third games, Perryville remained within striking distance early before the Leopards pulled away. "They don't make many mistakes," said Borrelli. "Maybe they had two or three serving errors (they had three) or one or two hitting errors (10). They just don't make mistakes. They're very clean with their passing. Their setter (Hollee Winders) is excellent and they have two really, really strong middles (Megan Moran and Alaina Black) who can block and hit and pass and serve. They do it all. I think Gabby (Goodnow) and Teri (Wennersten) definitely made them work extra hard. They're just a real solid program all the way around." Moran led Smithsburg with 15 kills and Black added 13. Winders recorded 31 assists. "They were definitely good hitters," said Goodnow. "They could adjust well around the block and sometimes there's nothing you can do about that. They constantly knew where our hands were and they just kept shooting balls around them." For Perryville (14-4), Goodnow provided a team-high 11 kills. "I think Gabby had maybe the best game of any player I've ever coached, especially against such a tough opponent" Borrelli said. "Gabby was just awesome. She was amazing. I'm really proud of her." Senior Bekah Hanshaw had five kills, Wennersten chipped in three, and Rose Porch and Gillian Bumba each notched two spikes. Smithsburg swept the Panthers in last fall's state final and in both the 2011 and 2012 state title match. Fort Hill swept Perryville in the 2013 state semis. Borrelli was asked if he was tired of seeing Smithsburg at College Park. "No," he said. "We want to beat them." Comments are closed.
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