Arundel upsets top-ranked S. River
Snidow helps Wildcats win 4th region title; Atholton tops Mount Hebron, 3-2
Twice this season, the No. 4 Arundel volleyball team was able to win a set against powerful No. 1 South River but nothing more. Most recently, in the Anne Arundel County championship match, the Wildcats took the opening set before losing three straight to the host Seahawks.
Trailing two sets to one again in the Class 4A East region finals Friday, the Wildcats (15-3) this time received inspired play from senior Makenna Snidow, who had not played the previous three sets. Snidow had seven kills and two aces in the final two sets to help the Wildcats (15-3) pull off the upset over the Seahawks, 22-25, 25-20, 18-25, 25-12, 15-7, and win their fourth region title in the school’s history.
“She just went in with a passion and fire, and I don’t know what she saw, but she clearly saw something and did something with it,” Arundel coach Ashley Yuscavage said. “That was her making amazing choices on her own.”
South River (17-1) led 2-0 in the fourth set, but the Wildcats rallied to take a 9-5 advantage before Snidow took over, scoring five of Arundel’s next six points, mainly from kills on the left side of the court, to give the Wildcats a 14-6 cushion.
“I would just look and I saw the court open, so I would take a swing,” Snidow said. “I have to give all the props to the setters.
“In four years at Arundel, we have always fallen to South River, and my senior year, to be able to win the regional championships, it’s just huge. Coming into this, our team had so much hope and we have been growing into this all season, and the fact that we pulled it together this last game, we just executed and we truly played our best tonight. It was so amazing.”
SHERWOOD D. NO. 11 CATONSVILLE, 3-0: Senior hitter Kaiya Heyliger had13 kills and senior setter Megan Wilson had 26 assists to lead the Warriors (16-1) to a 25-16, 25-4, 25-15 victory over the host Comets (15-2) in the Class 4A North region final.
Mitra Harrison led Catonsville with four kills, and Kateri Wess had 10 digs.
WILLIAMSPORT D. CENTURY, 3-0: The host Wildcats (12-6) withstood a strong performance from the Knights (9-9) and prevailed, 25-21, 25-20, 25-21, to take the Class 2A West region championship.
Century was looking for its first region crown since 2011, the year the Knights won a state title. Instead, the Wildcats were the ones posing with the trophy, their 22nd in program history and second since 2012.
“I think we were more together as a team,” senior libero Sarah Riggin said. “We knew what it was like to fight back. It was heartbreaking, but we tried our best.”
MCDONOUGHD, PATTERSON MILL, 3-1: The visiting Huskies (4-14) evened the score after winning the second set but lost the next two and fell to the Rams in the Class 1A North region final.
McDonough won, 25-15, 13-25, 25-23, 25-19. Megan Eberius had two service aces for Patterson Mill.