MECHANICSBURG – After winning the first set in Saturday afternoon’s PIAA-3A championship final, the second quickly got away from the Pope John Paul II girls volleyball team.
Mars collected 11 of the first 12 points and looked poised to tie the match in comfortable fashion as the Fighting Planets extended the lead to a dozen at 20-8.
“The beginning to the middle of that part, we just weren’t very good,” PJP II coach Ryan Sell said. “Obviously they were playing much better and they were serving really tough at us so it all kind of falls into place from them.”
But the Golden Panthers did not let Mars run away, instead the two-time defending state champs battled back to twice pull within three before the Planters denied the comeback bid and won 25-21.
Pope John Paul II may not have taken the set, but it did regain momentum, which it never relinquished in completing its Class 3A three-peat at Cumberland Valley High School.
“I think we kind of just clicked,” PJP II junior middle blocker Norah Busch said. “I think it was like we know what we needed to do to win. This has been a thing the whole season, we normally come in the first set really strong, second set we slow down a little bit, we’ll get behind.
“Even though we lost a set I’m really happy with how we played at the end, I think we really picked it up.”
The Golden Panthers used a five-point burst early in the third set to take the lead and never looked back then put the finishing touches on a perfect season by claiming the fourth as Pope John Paul II celebrated PIAA gold once again with a 3-1 (25-21, 21-25, 25-17, 25-18) victory over the District 7 champs.
“I’m so proud of my team for how far we’ve come,” PJP II senior outside hitter Maeve Gallagher said. “And even through the cycle of seniors that we’ve had, we’ve always kept consistent and we’ve always pushed all the way through. So I’m really proud of us for staying resilient and being able to make it to the top again.”
Busch paced the Golden Panthers with 18 kills while Gallagher added 15 kills and 14 digs as Pope John Paul II’s win capped a perfect 26-0 season that included Pioneer Athletic Conference and District 1 titles.
“People will ask me, they’ll be like what do you do on the bus when you don’t win because on the bus we always sing our alma mater and I’m like we haven’t really experienced that yet,” Gallagher said. “But it’s definitely addicting to win.”
It also extended the program’s win streak to 80 matches, the Golden Panthers having not lost since 2021.
“We normally don’t talk about it,” said Sell of the streak. “I tell the kids all the time, ‘Hey today’s game day we want to be 1-0.’ And I’m sure that they feel it more than I make them feel it cause I don’t ever talk about it.
“If you were to ask me how many wins we’ve won in a row, I have no clue. I read the articles, you see all the different numbers but I don’t really pay attention, I couldn’t even tell you what our record is right now.”
Josie Arezina chipped in 10 kills for Pope John Paul II with Haley Maloney recording nine kills. Mia Mobley made 14 digs while Emma Bond and Sophia Benincasa had 12 and 10 digs, respectively.
“Last year was tough because everybody expects you to win because you return basically your entire lineup, like you only replace a couple kids,” Sell said. “This year, I think that they younger kids that maybe weren’t super-big contributors last year felt a lot of pressure because they were backup kids. This year was a little bit harder because I think that those kids had to adjust to the expectation. They know the expectation but still now they’re in the game and the expectation is on them not on somebody else.
“And you saw it actually in the first set, there was a couple kids that the moment was pretty big and it looked like it got to them a little bit. And we had to calm some kids down, Josh McNaulty, my assistant coach, does a really nice job with that. But yeah, this team it’s fun to coach, it’s fun to be here.”
Pope John Paul II took a 1-0 lead in the match by taking a tight opening set, going ahead for good after breaking a 16-16 with three straight points.
Mars closed to within a point twice, the second time at 21-20 after an Alaina Graham ace but PJP II won the next two, Arezina’s kill making it 23-20. Another Arezina kill had the Panthers up 24-21 with PJP II winning the set on the next point.
Mars – making its first-ever appearance in a PIAA final – responded by racing out to a 7-1 lead in Set 2 to force an early PJP II timeout. It did little to slow down the Planets, who increased its advantage to 16-5 before another timeout by the Golden Panthers.
“I think we were definitely in our heads a little bit, playing a little bit more individually than as a team,” Gallagher said. “So with the other sets we really tried to work on improving that and being able to help each other and give each other momentum to be able push through instead of just all falling apart.”
Mars’ biggest lead in the set came at 20-8 before PJP II mounted its late charge. The Golden Panthers ripped off six straight points to pull within 21-17. Consecutive kills from Busch and Maloney cut the Planets’ edge to 23-20 with Pope John Paul II cutting it to three again at 24-21 before Mars took the following point to level the match.
The set loss was just the eighth this year for the Golden Panthers, who dropped only two sets in nine postseason matches.
“We made a ton of errors but again they were serving tough so it kind of comes with the territory,” Sell said. “But what we did do was make a few changes on where we were trying to hit the ball because we just kept swinging at their libero and it’s the best defender that’s why she’s got that different color jersey on.
“So we started talking a little bit more tactics, and making sure we’re paying attention to things they were doing to us.”
In the third set, PJP II never trailed after a 5-0 run gave it an early 6-2 lead, the Golden Panthers stretching the margin to 11-4 after a Maloney kill that had the Planets opting to call timeout.
“I think they were just working better because we had a better attitude throughout the court,” Gallagher said. “We were more consistent with our plays and we were talking a lot with each other to be able to communicate better and control our side of the court and slow it down.”
But Mars could get as close as six the rest of the set, the last time at 13-7 before Pope John Paul II won three straight points to go up nine. The Golden Panthers had their first double-digit lead at 18-8 and pushed its advantage to as large as 12 at 22-10 as they went on to win 25-17.
“I think it was definitely a sigh of relief that what they were doing to us we were able to do right back to them,” Busch said.
Pope John Paul II trailed 9-8 before taking control of the fourth set with a 10-3 run capped by a four-point burst that gave the Golden Panthers an 18-12 advantage and had Mars calling a timeout. The Planets won the next two points but PJP II answered by taking the four after to lead by eight 22-14.
Mars fought off two match points but could not deny PJP II on the third, the 25-18 set victory secured the Golden Panthers place on top of PIAA-3A for the third straight season.
“It’s just like an out of body, surreal experience,” Busch said. “Every time we step on the court as a team I think we come together. I’d like to think that it’s unlike any other program, I mean we’re such a family, no matter if we’re having a bad day off the court, we can pull together on the court and I think that’s just one of our dynamics.”
