Crofton upsets No. 2 Centennial in 3A state volleyball quarterfinals

Crofton volleyball coach Greg LeGrand wasn’t too concerned when his Cardinals dropped the first set in Friday night’s Class 3A state quarterfinal match to top-seeded Centennial. The Cardinals had gotten off to slow starts before and rebounded to win.

In the second game, the No. 7-ranked Cardinals straightened out their serve receive which enabled them to crank up the power and go on to a 10-25, 25-22, 20-25, 25-22, 15-12 upset victory over No. 2 and previously undefeated Centennial.

“Every time we play a team that’s a really good team, we have lost the first set,” LeGrand said. “We just say, ‘Hey listen. We’ve been here. We’ve done it…’ I said the greatest comebacks start from that. We weren’t playing bad. We just had to settle down.”

Senior outside hitters Emily Gustie and Lily Lagaras combined for 33 kills to lead Crofton to the state semifinals in only the second season of their program.

“It felt amazing. It felt so good to know we’re now going to state semis,” said Gustie, who pounded out match point for her 19th kill.

“That’s like insane that we’re going to state semifinals,” said senior setter Christine Wang. “I personally came into the season and I just wanted to go farther than we had last year when we got to the quarterfinals (and lost), and so, I think that really pushed us to want to win today. It would prove that even though we’re a newer team, we’re here, we’re good.”

The Cardinals (14-3) will play Northern of Calvert County, a 3-0 winner over No. 10 Bel Air, in the state semifinals Monday at a time and site to be determined. The Class 3A state final is scheduled for Nov. 16 or Nov. 17 at Harford Community College.

Crofton is the only Baltimore-area team to advance to the Class 3A final four. No. 4 River Hill, which defeated defending champion Reservoir in the regional final, fell to North Hagerstown, 3-0, and Poly fell to Magruder, 3-0, in the other quarterfinals.

Friday night at Centennial, the Eagles (16-1) rolled through the first set and into the second. They had a 19-13 lead in the second set before the momentum gradually began to swing Crofton’s way.

The Cardinals’ power hitters came alive thanks to better passing on serve receive and they closed out the second set with six kills, including three from Gustie and two from Lagaras, as well as a block and three aces on the final 11 points.

“The turning point for me,” LeGrand said, “was Emily Hanna, our libero, really showed up today. She played absolutely outstanding. She controlled serve receive. That was the difference in the match.”

The teams traded wins to a fifth set. The Eagles opened the decisive set with a kill from Mailinh Godschall and a block by Skylar Brown and led 4-1, but their last lead would be 5-4.

The Cardinals gradually pulled ahead with excellent passing and powerful outside hitting that the Centennial struggled to block. Legaras had four kills, Gustie had two and Hanna had one as they scored their final seven points on kills.

“It was like set after set, they won, we won, they won, we won and then to finally get a little momentum at the end and show them what we could do, we finished on a really positive note,” Legaras said.

LeGrand said he and his assistant coaches had watched every Centennial match they could find on YouTube.

“They’re a fantastic team,” LeGrand said. “We knew everything they were going to do and what we thought was if we could match them in serve receive, we could outhit them and I think we did.”

Godschall led the Eagles with 17 kills while Maclellan had nine. Middle hitters Maclellan and Brown combined for 10 blocks.

The Howard County champion Eagles, who had lost only seven sets all season and played in just one other five-set match, had been aiming for their first state title since 2008 and their 15th overall.

Bossom, who guided the Eagles to eight of their state titles, said the loss didn’t take away everything else they have achieved this season.

“I’m proud of them,” he said. “This was the first time that they’ve had a county championship and a regional championship in 10 years, I think, and I love coming to practice every day and I can’t say that about every team I’ve had.”

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