Old Mill knows its magical season will come to an end at some point. For the senior-dominated Patriots, holding a trophy after the Class 3A state championship would be a fine way for that to happen.
The Patriots made sure they took care of business Wednesday night, defeating host Glenelg, 25-23, 25-21, 25-23 to win the Class 3A South Region I title. The Gladiators were Class 3A state semifinalists last season.
Old Mill (11-3) rallied from deficits in all three sets to win the match. The Patriots, who are the lowest remaining team in Class 3A, will travel to either Dulaney, Howard or Northern Calvert for the state quarterfinals on Friday pending the results of a coin flip between the three unbeaten teams.
“I knew at the beginning of the season that we’d be here,” said Old Mill’s Brianna Hale (four aces, 24 assists), one of 10 seniors on the team. “We’ve been building toward this for four years and all our hard work is paying off.”
Old Mill had kind of a strange path to get to this position. The school competed in Class 4A last year, but lost a huge chunk of its enrollment when nearby Severn Run opened this year. This allowed the Patriots to drop to Class 3A, generally regarded as the toughest classification in Maryland volleyball.
“I feel like it is tougher,” Patriots coach Bethany Hayden said of the class change. “I also feel like my girls are better than ever before, and they can beat the best. We have all the pieces; we just need to put them together every day.”
The Patriots started from behind in the first set, but gradually cut the lead. After trailing by as many as five points at 20-15, Old Mill used a five-point serving run to eventually tie the set at 23. From there, a Glenelg kill attempt sailed long and the Patriots got a kill from Adison Schwerdtfeger (12 kills) to take the set, 25-23.
It was very similar in the second set. The Gladiators showed their mettle in the set, leading again by five at 17-12. From that point on, Old Mill went on an 8-3 run to eventually tie the set at 20. Again, the Patriots made the big plays when it counted down the stretch, getting two kills by Schwerdtfeger and a huge block by Vanessa Williams for the set point in a 25-21 win.
With its back to the wall, Glenelg responded in the third set. The Gladiators jumped out to a 10-4 lead. Old Mill then came to life offensively and at the net, cutting the margin to 13-11 and forcing Glenelg coach Nick Sharp to call a time out. After the break, the onslaught continued until Old Mill eventually knotted the score at 19. With the score tied at 21, the Patriots got a serving ace from Rianna Metzger (six kills, three blocks) and two kills from Schwerdtfeger to take a 24-22 lead. The match ended on a Glenelg serving error, and that set off a wild celebration by the Patriots and their fans.
“We watched a lot of film on Glenelg,” senior outside hitter Kendall Lee (10 kills) said. “This was not an accident. We knew they were a great team. Obviously, they have a lot of state championship banners in volleyball in this gym and we have none in ours, but we just dug in an adjusted and it paid off.”
For first-year coach Sharpe, the loss was not the way he wanted the team’s run to end.
“They out-hit us a little bit and out-defensed us a little bit tonight,” Sharp said. “It was two evenly matched teams, but they were just a little better. They did a good job of seizing the momentum, and once they got it they never gave it up.”