Bishop Kearney’s Jen Jamin tips one over Molloy’s Jenna Hoffman. (Damion Reid)
Bridget Kinane almost didn’t come to her Bishop Kearney girls volleyball team’s playoff match Sunday. She had work and was having trouble getting out of it.
But when coach Kristin Wulff texted her Saturday saying star middle hitter Christina Shalhoub was going to be out with strept throat, there was no doubt where Kinane would be the following morning.
“I have to,” the starting setter thought. “We have to do this.”
Kearney, a team that struggled with unity all season, came together in Shalhoub’s absence. The Tigers, Brooklyn’s No. 2 seed, lost the first set, then showed plenty of resolve in a 23-25, 25-18, 25-18, 25-21 win against Queens No. 3 Archbishop Molloy in the CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens quarterfinals at Molloy.
“Me and Meaghan [McGoorty] were saying we really needed to step up without Christina,” senior outside hitter Deirdre Smith said.
Kearney (11-2) will meet Queens top seed St. Francis Prep in the semifinals Thursday at home. Queens No. 2 Mary Louis, which beat Brooklyn No. 3 Bishop Ford on Sunday, plays Brooklyn No. 1 Fontbonne Hall in the other semi.
“There have been off-the-court distractions,” Wulff said. “The girls that showed up today to play did exactly that – they played. They never gave up. It was different in the Fontbonne games. Maybe that was a lesson for them.”
Kearney fell twice to its Brooklyn rival this season. The first loss snapped the Tigers’ 183-match, 14-year division winning streak. Both times, they folded when facing deficits. That didn’t happen Sunday.
“Fontbonne and us – it’s a Brooklyn thing, maybe,” Kinane said. “I didn’t think [this] was as much pressure.”
McGoorty was the team’s primary offensive option without Shalhoub. The powerful left-handed opposite hitter had 15 kills. Smith had 20 digs, Kinane added 27 assists and five service aces and Cody Dripchak chipped in eight kills and 10 digs for Kearney.
Molloy, which will play Ford in a consolation match with state tournament implications, “just didn’t have it today,” coach Steve Leoutsakos said. The Stanners earned a playoff berth in their last match of the regular season Wednesday courtesy of a win against rival Mary Louis. They couldn’t muster than kind of energy Sunday, though.
“We just didn’t come together as a team like we did on Senior Night against Mary Louis,” Molloy senior middle Christina Perez said. “Sometimes we have team chemistry, sometimes we don’t.”
Kearney knows what that’s like. The Tigers struggled to find themselves during the regular season, but they’re still alive and playing for a title – in the same spot as Fontbonne. Does making the semifinals alleviate the pain of falling twice to the rival Bonnies?
“It eases it a little bit,” Kinane said.
