The Perryville volleyball team served up a shockingly lopsided 25-4, 25-7, 25-15 triumph over Frederick Douglass in the state semifinals Wednesday night in College Park. The Panthers posted a whopping 29 saves – 14 by libero Hailey Jones. After scoring the first point of the match on a sideout, Jones served 16 straight points to put the Panthers ahead 17-0. Brooke Reynolds recorded seven aces. "It's just the same thing we do in practice," Reynolds said. "You just try to focus on the ball and tune out everything, just focus on the court."
Said coach Matt Borrelli: "We've really put a lot of emphasis on serving and serve receive this year and I think it's showing. We had 60 or 70 more aces already, before this game, than we had all of last year. A big reason why is the three girls (Jones, Bea Muscella, and Reynolds) sitting up here [at the post match press conference]. They put a lot of time and effort into their serving. They take a lot of pride in that. And that's why they're the first three servers we have every game because we know with them we're going to get a nice little lead and you can roll from there." Muscella had a match-high nine kills and Rebecca Holman supplied seven. Jordan Carr contributed 17 assists. Perryville advances to the state title match against nemesis Smithsburg Saturday afternoon at 5. The Panthers, seeking their first state title, will be playing in the championship match for the fifth time. The previous four appearances all ended with a loss to Smithsburg. "We know who we're going up against," Borrelli said. "We are going to prepare as hard as we can. We're coming here to win on Saturday. We're going to work as hard as we can. We're hoping for a different result this time around and we'll be ready to play on Saturday." Borrelli has great admiration for the Smithsburg program, which has captured 12 state titles and seven of the last eight. "When I hear Smithsburg I just think of a lot of respect," said Borrelli. "They're the class of 1A volleyball for so many years. Lot of respect for their program. They continually year after year have a great team." Jones is optimistic about her team's chances. "[Playing Smithsburg again] makes me reminisce the last three years that I've been here and lost against them but this year we're really hoping for a different turnaround," she said. "We've really worked so hard this season, harder than we worked any other season. I think this year is our year." Comments are closed.
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