Wolverines fall short of title
Western Tech stopped in school’s first title match appearance
No matter what future teams at Western Tech do, the 2018 Wolverines will always hold the place in history as the first volleyball team in school history to be a state finalist.
The No. 13 Wolverines (17-3) finished with the most wins in program history, but it ended with a 25-14, 25-15, 25-13 loss to Clear Spring in the Class1A state volleyball finals at the Ritchie Coliseum at the University of Maryland on Tuesday night.
Western Tech was making its first appearance in the state championship game in its third visit to the final four.
They lost in the state semifinals in 2017 and 2011.
Despite the loss, Western Tech coach Eric Jett, in his 18th season, was satisfied with the historic season and he thanked his team after the match.
“It was a dream for me to get to be a part of and to be their coach, so thank you guys,” said Jett, whose team eyed the state finals in August. “We have been gradually building and getting better over the last few years and we had the right mix of girls and we are starting to gain a little more experience. It wasour goal, last year, wemade it to states and I think we would all agree it was a little bit of a Cinderella run, we just kind of jelled at the right time.”
Clear Spring (14-7) was making its fourth appearance and first since capturing titles in 1993 and1994. Clear Spring’s Vallery Dean smashes a kill between the block attempts by Western Tech’s Beatrice Daudelin, left, and Rachael Durhman.
Just like last year, when Western Tech lost in the state semifinals to Smithsburg, the Wolverines had early leads in each of the first three sets.
The Wolverines eased out to a 4-1 lead in the final set, highlighted by two kills from Sheri Adewumi and a kill and block from Kieran Ray (team-high five kills).
After a missed serve, the Blazers got kills from Vallery Dean (eight kills) and Olivia Kirby (eight kills), back-to-back aces from Jordyn Smith, block from Annemarie Kinman (21 assists) and another ace from Smith for an 8-4 lead.
Following a service error, Carley Boarman’s ace, Rachel Durham’s kill and a lift tied the score at 8 before the Blazers got the ball back on a missed serve.
Two kills from Dean gave the Blazers a lead they would never relinquish and Kylee McKenrick served out the final seven points of the match.
The loss ended the careers of seniors Boarman, Jamiah Pilgrim, Maya Thurston and Hafsah Ebahim.
“It was very satisfying for it to be my senior season and to go this far and I kind of knew from the beginning of the season I wasn’t going to let anything get in the way of not coming here,” Boarman said.
On the winning side, Clear Spring coach Jessica Custer talked about her team’s ability to overcome adversity after winning nine matches in a row and11of12 after opening the season 3-6.
“This season has been based on believing in ourselves and believing that we could win and believing that we belonged on a big stage like this one and having the confidence to play under pressure with the mental resiliency that if we make mistakes it’s okay and they certainly did that the past two games,” Custer said.