The mood was electric inside Crofton High’s gymnasium Thursday evening following a thrilling three-set victory by the host Cardinals junior varsity squad against neighborhood rival Arundel.
Then, the undefeated and top-ranked Arundel varsity squad took the pristine floor of the 2-year-old school. The tenor of the crowd took a 180-degree turn as the Wildcats served and spiked their way to the first 13 points of the opening game en route to a sweep (25-8, 25-20, 25-15) of the No. 5 Cardinals in an Anne Arundel County match.
“We talked in practice about mental toughness and fighting back when we’re in situations that can cause us to be down,” said Arundel senior setter Emily Liu, whose squad improved to 11-0 overall, and 9-0 in the Anne Arundel league. “I think we’re in a good position right now. Everyone’s doing well, and I think we’re communicating well. We all have the same goal and mindset to get as far as possible this year.”
Liu helped serve her squad to the three-game sweep, connecting on two of her five saves as part of that 13-point run in the first set. She also dished out 23 assists, spreading the ball around to her spike-pounding teammates, who largely dominated the play at the net, including senior outside hitter Audrey Owens.
Owens paced the two-time defending 4A state champion Wildcats with eight kills to go along with 14 digs.
“Definitely, running our offense was huge because we have really good middles and good outsides and right sides, so when we get our kills, it gives us energy and hypes us all up and makes us want to continue,” said Owens, whose squad outscored the Cardinals 10-4 to close out game two in what was largely a back-and-forth contest.
Helping Owens spike the energy meter on the team were junior outside hitter Deviana Walker (seven kills), junior opposite Payton Swinton (five kills), and junior middle-back Brooke Waters (five kills).
“I believe this one makes us for sure in counties, so that was definitely huge. The stakes were kind of high in this, and it was probably one of our tougher matches,” Owens added.
After the rough start to the match, the Cardinals (11-2), who suffered their first league loss, falling to 8-1. Crofton held modest leads of 11-8 and 16-14 in the second game before the serving of Bailey Swinton to go along with three combined kills from Walker and Owens and a key block from Kiara Harmon propelled the Wildcats to the 25-20 victory.
The Wildcats, guided by the serving of Taylor Johnson, including a pair of aces, and powerful kills from Harmon and Owens turned a narrow 5-4 advantage into a commanding 17-10 lead in the third game en route to the 10-point match-winning victory.
“I think we got punched in the mouth, and we never really tried to recover,” Cardinals coach Greg LeGrand said. “I thought we were going to get back into the second set, but I think we just used so much energy trying to come back, we kind of ran out of gas a little bit at the end.
“Quite honestly, we know how good of a team we are; we just didn’t show up that way today. I think we looked a little too small for the moment today even though I think we’re going to be a really good team. Everything’s still in front of us. We’ve got a big game against Annapolis Tuesday and a big game against Broadneck on Thursday, so we can still be in the county championship, and we can still be all the things we want to be as far as seeding for the playoffs.”
