Powerhouse St. Joseph’s denies North Central’s bid for first volleyball championship
North Central was oh so close from ending the school’s state championship drought. But a slow start in the deciding set of the Class 2A volleyball title match prevented that from happening.
St. Joseph’s defeated North Central 3-2 (19-25, 25-19, 28-26, 18-25, 15-6) in front of a large contingent of Kershaw County fans Saturday afternoon Dreher High School.
Several minutes after the match ended, North Central coach Andy Johnson and his players gathered in a circle in the Dreher cafeteria. The postgame speech and handing out of the championship runner-up medals featured tears and laughter as they remembered the journey to make it to the program’s first title appearance since 1995.
North Central hasn’t won a team state championship since the softball program won the Class A crown in 1999.
“It was a high-level volleyball match,” Johnson said. “They have a great program, great tradition and great coach. We knew it was going to be a battle and one or two plays that would be the difference.
“... But I am so proud of them. They are a great group of young ladies and really fun to coach.”
Johnson teared up at times talking to reporters about the team’s run and coaching his daughter Alayna the past five years. Alayna Johnson, one of the top players in the state, committed to South Carolina a few years ago and will sign her letter of intent to play for the Gamecocks next week. She will graduate early and enroll at USC in January.
The father and daughter will share the court together one more time for the North-South All-Star volleyball match later this month.
“She plays hard. She studies the game and we ask her to do a lot. …. She has played a role in a lot of good teams that we had here,” Johnson said of his daughter. “She has also played at the highest level outside of high school ball and we trust her.
“I am proud to coach not only her but the rest of the kids.”
Johnson led North Central with 33 kills, 23 digs and four aces. Lily Roberts was tops on NC with 42 assists. Addie Bittner had 16 digs and five kills.
Johnson was one of two future Gamecocks on the court Saturday. St. Joseph’s setter Kimmie Thompson is also committed to USC for the Class of 2022 and made several key assists in the win.
This was the second straight year the two teams met in the postseason. North Central defeated St. Joseph’s in the second round of the 2020 2A playoffs and ended SJ’s run of consecutive state championships at nine. St. Joseph won five in a row from 2011-15 in Class A and four more from 2016-19 since moving up to Class 2A.
North Central got off to a good start winning the first set 25-19. St. Joseph won the next one 25-19.
North Central looked in control of the third set and led 21-17 before St. Joseph’s won six of the next seven points to lead 23-22. Johnson helped North Central battle back and her kill tied the match at 24. But with the set tied at 26-26, St. Joseph won the final two points to go up 2-1.
Despite missing Bittner (illness) in the fourth set, North Central jumped out to a 17-5 lead and held off a late rally to win 25-18.
But they couldn’t carry that momentum into the final set and made a few mistakes early in the fifth set and could never recover as St. Joseph’s won their 10th championship, fourth most in state history behind Bishop England (28), Pickens (16) and Dorman (14). Pickens and Dorman also won state championships this week.
“The fourth set, I don’t know what happened. We disappeared. Their No. 2 (Alayna Johnson) served us out of the game,” St. Joseph’s coach Jan Carino said. “But in the fifth set, we knew we had to perform and we did.
“It was a great match and could have gone either way. We have seven seniors and for us to win a championship for them, it means a lot.”
This story was originally published November 6, 2021 at 6:27 PM.
