Domination! Cardinal Newman captures volleyball state championship
When Cynthia Dimapan took over as Cardinal Newman volleyball coach, the program struggled getting over that championship hump. That’s not the case anymore.
Cardinal Newman won its second-straight S.C. Independent School Association 4A state championship with a 3-0 win (25-13, 25-15, 25-8) over Northwood Academy in front of a standing-room-only crowd Tuesday at Charleston Southern University’s Buc Dome.
It’s the fifth championship in school history and third in the last four years. The Cardinals have established themselves as the dominant SCISA program and one of the best among all schools in the state — public or private.
“When I first took over the program, we had some tremendous hurdles to overcome,” Dimapan said, “just being able to get that third-place even after I took over. We couldn’t knock off any of the Charleston teams, Ashley Hall and Porter-Gaud. It really took a lot of hard work to get us to that level. We tried to hone in and work hard and have the best program possible.”
In 2015, the year Dimapan took over the program, the Cardinals won 23 games but lost to Porter-Gaud in the playoffs.
Since then, the Cards have won more than 30 matches in a season four times and finished this year with a 45-7-2 record. That was two wins shy of the school record set last year. Cardinal Newman has made it to five straight championship matches with the other four coming against Porter-Gaud.
Cardinal Newman has wins this season over public schools in four different classifications in South Carolina and had a strong showing in a tournament in Florida earlier this month.
“It feels great to do so well. We have different challenges each season,” Dimapan said. “Just to know these girls are looked upon by their fellow teams that they are really good. It takes so much work in the gym, a lot of conditioning and extra practices to get us to this point.”
One of the challenges the Cardinals faced was the loss of senior and South Carolina commitment Victoria Harris, who suffered an ACL injury in an Aiken tournament back in August. Harris spent much of Tuesday’s match like she has all season, encouraging her teammates throughout the match.
Kellee Craig moved over and replaced Harris at the libero spot, and others helped fill that void.
Cardinal Newman also faced a rowdy environment Tuesday that had plenty of fans from Northwood, located in nearby Summerville. The Cards were up to the challenge.
“Without Victoria, we lost a little bit of our offense but (Kellee) definitely showed out tonight,” said senior and Temple commit Christiana Greene.
Greene led the Cards with 15 kills. Jayden Johnson had 16 assists and Lauren Rivers had 10.
After winning the first set, Cardinal Newman jumped out to a 9-3 lead in the second set before Northwood closed the deficit to 14-11. The Cardinals responded with five straight points to lead 19-11.
In the third set, Cardinal Newman wasn’t challenged and jumped out to an 18-6 lead.
“To go back to back is amazing,” Green said.
This story was originally published October 24, 2023 at 9:32 PM.
