Champs! Cardinal Newman volleyball wins thriller for first state title since 1997

The drought of not having a volleyball championship at Cardinal Newman is finally over.

The Cardinals rallied from a set down to claim a 3-2 (25-23, 23-25, 16-25, 25-23, 15-12) victory Tuesday night over defending SCISA Class 3A state champion Porter-Gaud at Wilson Hall’s gym. It was the Cardinals’ first state title since 1997.

Anna Logan Gillens slammed home her 21st kill of the match for the game-winner to set off a wild celebration among the Cardinals and their fans.

It’s the culmination of waiting a year to get back on this stage. A season ago, the Cyclones swept the Cardinals to claim their ninth title in 10 years.

“The girls worked so hard. We had 6 a.m. practices, we had a couple of Sunday practices. We did everything in our power to put ourselves in the best position to win it. Everyone has been amazing. Everyone chipped in to contribute to our success today,” Cardinal Newman coach Cynthia Dimapan said. ”This is our first time (for this staff and group of players) in taking a championship trophy and holding it in our hands. We hope to do it year after year. We understand the amount of work that it takes.”

For a brief time, the Cyclones (18-5) looked as they would be taking the trophy back to Charleston. They dropped the first set but then rallied to take the next two sets behind the big hitting of Texas commit Marianna Singletary.

But the Cardinals (33-1) weren’t going to be denied. They jumped out to a quick lead in the fourth set and held its biggest advantage at 18-12 before Porter-Gaud rallied. The Cyclones took a 23-22 lead before Cardinal Newman scored the final three points, the last one coming on another kill by Gillens.

The fifth game was a sprint to 15 and the Cardinals only trailed once, 1-0, to open things up. Gillens, Molly Mazoue and Ashlyn Watkins all got into it with Gillens sealing the match with a hard spike coming from the left side.

“I was like, Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh, I have to kill, I have to kill it, I have to do it,” Gillens said. “It means a lot for me to be a part of this. I’m very excited and grateful we were able to pull out a win. We were here last year, fighting hard and still in the middle of building our program. For us to come out here and win, it’s big.”

Dimapan said she wanted her team to remember everything they had gone through since the beginning of August when they were facing a 2-1 deficit. The Cardinals had only lost three sets in 33 matches coming into the final, none since October 12 against Aiken.

“When we were down two games to one, we had to go back to everything we talked about during practices,” Dimapan said. “We studied film and used every strategy we could think of to give our best game to PG. The girls executed. At the end of the day, it came down to everything we put into it.”

Victoria Harris recorded 16 digs and three aces, Logan Watson added 45 assists and seven digs and Erin Allert added seven block assists. Gillens was assisted on the front line by Alexa Johnson with 11 kills and six block assists while Watkins added two solo blocks and six block assists and Mazoue finished with nine kills and nine digs.

Class 2A championship

Northside Christian lost in its bid for the SCISA 2A volleyball championship to Spartanburg Christian on Tuesday at the Upward Star Center.

Spartanburg won 3-0 (25-18, 27-25, 25-17) for its fifth straight title. Northside (18-3) advanced to the championship with wns over Shannon Forest (twice) and Christian Academy on Saturday in the double-elimination portion of the tournament.

This story was originally published October 27, 2020 at 10:14 PM.