St. Joseph volleyball tops Apollo-Ridge, caps historic regular season with unbeaten section record

By: Thursday, October 17, 2024 | 9:53 PM

The St. Joseph girls volleyball team already knew it had won its first section championship before taking the floor Thursday night.

One question remaining was if the Spartans could finish the Section 1-A slate unbeaten.

It took fighting off a spirited effort from Apollo-Ridge, but they got the job done.

After dropping the first set, St. Joseph won the next three to secure a 3-1 victory and complete a perfect section season.

"It's history-making," St. Joseph coach Ann McCarthy said. "We've never done this before, so it means everything to the girls. Apollo-Ridge is a very good team. Coming into this gym and having to serve behind all of those kids (in the student section) was tough."

St. Joseph (15-3, 10-0) finished the night with a 25-19 win in set four.

Veronica McCarthy had a kill off a block attempt to clinch the match.

Before the final point, St. Joseph had to battle a game Vikings team in a raucous environment.

The Vikings started fast in the first set, scoring the first eight points with senior Kylar Toland at the service line.

Six of the eight points were on serves that weren't returned by St. Joseph.

"We actually switched up our service order to have (Toland) serve first, for that specific reason," Vikings coach Laura Daub said. "I feel she's really good at starting us strong, and she did exactly that. I was very proud of her."

The Spartans steadied themselves and went on a run of their own to get it to 9-8, but they never got closer.

Apollo-Ridge won eight of the next 10 points to rebuild its comfortable lead and went on to win 25-19.

Sophomore middle hitter Anna Curci had a block for the set-clinching point.

St. Joseph knotted the match with a strong second set.

It went back and forth early, but the Spartans took the lead 8-7 and never relinquished it.

Behind kills from Kate Giannetta, Elaina Moore and Veronica McCarthy, St. Joseph built a 23-16 lead.

Apollo-Ridge made a run late, but Moore clinched a 25-21 victory with a kill.

Giannetta came up big for the Spartans in set three.

After Apollo-Ridge had taken a 13-9 lead, Giannetta had three kills in the span of seven points, which helped the Spartans take the lead. She also had an ace in the set.

St. Joseph held on from there, winning the set 25-18. Jones had a kill through the middle for set point.

"I have to give credit to (Giannetta) because she put the team on the back and really got us on track," McCarthy said.

Apollo-Ridge (10-5, 7-3) is playoff bound for the first time since 2021. They honored four seniors — Toland, Olivia Saxion, Maeggie Wysocki and Kirsten Ayers — before the match.

"I like that though we are a powerhouse in hitting, our defense is on and we work really well as a team," Daub said. "That's my takeaway from this entire season. We don't have a star or a stud, but we have a good solid core and that's what I'm hoping continues in the future."

Both teams will learn their matchup Friday when the WPIAL releases the brackets.

"I hope we host a playoff game because we've never done that," McCarthy said. "We get to put up a banner in our gym, which is super exciting. Now the next goal is to win a playoff game, because we've never done that. This is only the third time in school history that we've made the playoffs."

Jerin Steele is a freelance writer