Crofton’s hopes of a volleyball state championship dashed by Northern

Crofton’s volleyball team started Monday night’s state semifinal match the way they usually do against a good team, losing the first set. Then they usually bounce back, which they did. This time, they just couldn’t seize the momentum long enough.

The No. 2 Cardinals’ bid to win the state championship in their second varsity season ended against one of the most storied programs in state tournament history, Northern of Calvert County.

The Patriots (17-1) advanced to the Class 3A state final with a 25-14, 25-27, 25-20, 25-15 victory over Crofton Monday night at Arundel High School. Northern will go for its 12th title against North Hagerstown Wednesday night at 7 p.m. at Harford Community College’s APG Federal Credit Union Arena.

While the Cardinals (14-4) didn’t take the big leap they had hope for, they did reach the state semifinals for the first time, coming on the heels of last season’s loss in the state quarterfinals. They edged then-No. 2 and previously undefeated Centennial Friday in the quarterfinals, the biggest win in their short history.

The eighth-seeded Cardinals couldn’t duplicate that effort Monday night, staying with the Patriots in the third and fourth sets until 10-9 or 10-10 and then letting Northern gradually build its lead.

“Today we didn’t play our best, but we’ve had a fantastic season,” Crofton coach Greg LeGrand said. “I’m so proud of these girls and just how (high) they set the bar. First senior group and the way that they’ve cut the trail for everyone to follow, we know we’re going to be good for a long time now.”

Northern coach Bobby Gibbons agreed.

“You’ve ot to give Crofton a lot of credit,” Gibbons said. “That’s a brand new school, wasn’t even in existence [three] years ago and look at them now, they’re just two steps away from the state championship. That’s a hell of a job they’ve done with that program.”

In the first set, Northern built a nine-point lead early and the Cardinals managed to cut it to 20-13 on back-to-back aces by Sam Dutton, but Jocelyn Houston’s kill gave the Patriots back the momentum. They closed out the set when Alexa Caronello pounded a kill off the Cardinals’ block.

The Cardinals took the lead early in the second set and built as much as a seven-point lead before Northern rallied with a six-point run to pull ahead 24-22 lead. Cora Shafer’s kill stopped that run. An ace from Christine Wang and a block from Shafer gave Crofton a 25-24 lead.

Maya Johnson’s kill tied it for Northern, but a Patriots service error and Lily Lagaras’s ace polished off the game for the Cardinals to tie the match at 1-1.

Crofton started the third set strong thanks in part two a pair of kills from Emily Gustie, who finished with eight, but they could not hold onto the momentum. Once Northern took a 7-6 lead, the Cardinals were left playing catch-up the rest of the set. They pulled within 19-17 on back-to-back aces from Dutton but couldn’t get closer.

I think we were tense,” senior setter Wang said, “and we were getting a bit too harsh on ourselves and I think that brought our play down.”

LeGrand said losing the third set was the pivotal point in the match.

“I just feel like a couple points got away from us that we did some uncharacteristic thing,” he said. “You look at how we play and you look at how we played in that third set, it doesn’t really resonate to how we actually play… I can probably find five things on film in that third set that we’ve never done before, I’ve never seen before. I think pressure does that a little bit.”

While the Patriots will go after their first state title since 2017, the 10 returning Cardinals will continue to build on their success.

“I’m just so proud of this team,” said senior Lily Lagaras, who had nine kills. “We have younger players on this team who really stepped up to the plate like Emily Hanna. She’s our libero. She’s a sophomore. That’s like, crazy. And we have a couple juniors too, Jaelyn (Stewart), Sam (Dutton). They stepped up and I’m just so proud.”

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