By Joseph Staszewski
This was not a five-setter thriller like three previous matchups last year. This time St. Francis Prep asserted its place as the dominant team in CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens girls volleyball.
The Terriers swept rival and host Archbishop Molloy, 25-17, 25-17, 25-18, in Briarwood Wednesday night. Last season the Stanners handed SFP, the five-time defending diocesan champion, its first league loss since 2005, as the teams went to five sets three of the four times they met. St. Francis Prep was having none of that this time around.
“We wanted to show we are not having any let ups this season,” junior Jaclyn Laforgia said. “Unlike last year we want to have a full, clean, perfect record. We had to shut them down.”
Laforgia had 14 digs, three kills and two aces for the Terriers (4-0). Libero Caroline Vallone notched 19 digs, Kendra McCalla had 23 assists and Caroline Gorecki notched 13 kills and five blocks. Kelly Flynn chipped in four kills and Kaitlyn Sluyk provided a lift off the bench. Jenna Hoffman collected 13 digs for Mollloy (4-1) and Lauren Pagan recorded six kills.
“We really wanted to beat them,” Gorecki said. “We wanted to play as hard as we can so we don’t have to go more than three sets.”
Molloy was with the Terriers midway through each set, only to watch them pull away. It was 11-10 Molloy in the first set, 10-10 in the second and 11-10 Molloy in the third. The longest SFP spurt came in the first set as Pierre went on a 7-0 service run as her team scored eight straight points to go up 18-11. She also had a 5-0 service run in the third set to make it 16-11 Terriers.
“We had a couple of runs that gave up that separation a little bit more,” SFP coach Kevin Colucci said. “Other than that is was a battle back and forth.”
The Stanners left feeling they made too many errors, hit right at St. Francis Prep players and blocks and didn’t pass well enough to set their hitters up for kills. Molloy assistant coach Rose Ruesing credited the Terriers defensive effort and felt on the other end her team left the middle too wide up.
“They didn’t make the mistakes we made,” Ruesing said “That was the big difference in the game.“
