By Laura Amato
St. Francis Prep senior Bella Collura had never been more thankful to see the ball hit the floor.
She couldn’t keep the smile off her face when the ball landed as the Terriers took down The Mary Louis Academy to clinch the BQCHSAA “AA” volleyball title in straight sets of 25-17, 25-19 and 25-11 Nov. 3 at St. John’s.
“That was literally fantastic,” Collura said. “I couldn’t believe it. It’s crazy. We’ve been working for this all season and we’ve been working hard. It’s awesome.”
St. Francis Prep set the tone of the match early, jumping out to a 12-1 lead on the Hilltoppers in the first set. It was more than enough to set TMLA back on its heels and, most importantly, give the Terriers a big-time boost of championship-confidence.
“It was really big because I told the girls we had to control ourselves from the get-go and they did a great job of that,” said St. Francis Prep coach Kevin Colucci. “We made it really tough for the other team to get the ball away.”
The second set wasn’t quite as easy – Mary Louis stole back a bit of the momentum and jumped out to a 6-4 lead as the squads exchanged points early on. A St. Francis Prep timeout changed things, however, and the Terriers refocused, going on a pair of big-time runs—including a six-point spark to jump out to a 21-15 lead.
“We called a timeout, we talked to each other and just worked on figuring it out,” senior Ann Roberts said. “We got our heads back in the game. We have moments when we kind of shut down a little bit, but we pulled it back together and got each other back up to get back in there.”
Of course, a rhythm like the one the Terriers had going doesn’t just happen and both Collura and Roberts did their part to make sure St. Francis held its momentum throughout all three sets.
The pair were a set-spike force to be reckoned with next to the net, as Collura regularly set up Roberts and the duo settled into their own personal rhythm.
“I can hear Ann on the side, because she’s always out on the court. And she’s like ‘Focus, focus, focus,’” Collura said. “So that’s all I do. When we’re on our runs that’s when we take and we get kills.”
The Terriers also had a bit of regular-season inspiration in the championship matchup—Mary Louis was the only team to beat St. Francis Prep ahead of the final and that lone loss lingered in the minds of the squad ahead of the opening serve.
“I felt like it made us want it more,” Roberts said. “If we were playing any other team we kind of knew we could beat them already and this was more of a challenge for us. It feels better winning against a team that you lost to.”
St. Francis Prep advances to the CHSAA state tournament and, after a convincing win like this, the Terriers are confident about their chances. In fact, they’re anxious to prove themselves all over again.
“It’s the whole unit playing together to be successful and that’s what we’ve been preaching all season,” Colucci said. “The end of the season here they’ve really started picking that up.”
