WILMINGTON — The Ursuline volleyball team sat on the floor of Laffey-McHugh Gymnasium, eating snacks while waiting to honor their three seniors. If it wasn’t for the looks of relief on their faces and the ice pack taped to the shoulder of C.C. DeCaro, one might not have known that the Raiders had just survived a grueling five-set marathon against Wilmington Charter.
The Raiders were up, two sets to love, then watched the Force battle back to a tie. For a bit, it seemed as if the fifth set would never end. Set scores were 25-21, 25-21, 12-25, 20-25, and 19-17.
Two weeks from the beginning of the state tournament, the match had a postseason feel. Ursuline came out hot, sprinting to a 10-3 lead before the Force rebounded. DeCaro matched hits with Seraphina Pabian and Miranda Ting of Charter, keeping the Raiders in front by a few points into the middle of the set. An ace from Hayley Timmons, followed by a kill from Caitlyn McGonigal, pushed the Raiders’ advantage to 16-10, but it wasn’t over.
Pabian smacked consecutive kills to cut the Ursuline lead to 21-18, prompting a Raiders timeout. Samantha McLarthy then stuffed an overpass to cut the Force’s deficit to two. DeCaro sent it to set point with a kill, and Timmons ended it with an ace.
Charter looked to tie it after two sets, building an 11-5 lead early. They used strong defense and big hitting primarily from Pabian and Ting along the way. A Pabian smash made it 20-15, but Lizzie Barnett and the Raiders were not done. They scored seven straight, and Julia Terzaghi eventually won it with a smash.
But a best-of-five is just that, and the Force are no strangers to going the distance. They turned a 9-8 squeaker into a runaway win.
A strong service game from Claire McCann helped the Force equalize in the fourth set, while Ting continued to crush balls into the floor. The Raiders hung close thanks in large part to big defense on the Force’s hitters, plus some strong play up front from Emelia Panunto and others. Eleanor Ober recorded a kill to get it to set point, and Ting smacked a ball straight down to tie it up at two sets a piece.
The fifth set started with a familiar sight as Ting rose high off the floor to pound a ball off a Raider and out of bounds. Back and forth they went, with Kelly coming up with two big blocks as the Raiders took a 5-4 lead. Pabian scored on an attack, and Eleanor Ober threw up a block to give Charter a one-point lead.
It was tied, 8-8, when the Raiders went on a bit of a run thanks to a few Force unforced errors that put them ahead, 11-8. Shortly thereafter, DeCaro added a pair of attacks, and a block from Terzaghi gave the Raiders a 14-10 lead and match point. Charter got a sideout, and two Raiders errors and a Catie Cole block later, the fifth was tied at 14.
Emma Shaner earned the Force its first match point when she stuffed an overpass, but Kelly tied it with a kill. Pabian was then blocked out of bounds for match point No. 2, but Panunto answered. Pabian scored on a back-line attack for the Force, and Panunto again tied the set after a couple of huge defensive stops for the Raiders.
Juliette Cummings joined the block party on the next point, stopping two Force attacks to send it to match point once more, and on the next point, a violation was called on Charter before Cummings could record her final block of the night.
DeCaro finished with 20 kills and 22 digs, while Kelly had 12 kills and seven blocks. The Raiders (10-3) hit the road for their final two matches, but they are off until a match at Padua on Oct. 26 at 7:15 p.m.
For the Force, Pabian went for 26 kills and 12 digs. Ting had 13 kills, four aces and seven blocks. Charter (8-3) hosts MOT Charter on Thursday at 6 p.m.
All photos by Mike Lang.
