Despite dominating its opposition all season, St. Paul?s coach Kelli Wilkinson just hoped to take one game from public-school power Liberty when the two teams met Monday night.
Liberty won the match, but not before St. Paul?s rallied from down two games to one before falling, 25-20, 25-22, 22-25, 17-25, 15-6. Wilkinson said that match showed just how far the program has come in the last five years, as the Gators prepare to defend their Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference title next week. St. Paul?s is 17-2 overall and entered the week atop the A Conference at 9-0.
“I really feel our girls give everything they have,” Wilkinson said. “They are not always the most athletic out there, but they show a lot of character on the court.”
Making St. Paul?s current run even more impressive is the fact that it has won at every level in the IAAM, beginning in 2002 when the Gators captured the C Conference title. The next year, they won the B Conference championship before winning their first A Conference crown in 2005.
Leading the way for St. Paul?s is a dynamic group of young talented hitters in Bailey Webster, Jillian Unitas and Bailey Griswald. Through Monday?s match, Webster had 239 kills and 60 aces, while Unitas and Griswald had 121 and 116 kills, respectively. Setter Rachel Kelley is charged with getting those players the ball, and she has 552 assists through the same period.
“It was great to have a challenging match like we did against Liberty,” Webster said. “We haven?t had to come back like that this season, so it shows me that if we face some adversity in the playoffs, we have the heart to overcome it.”
Winning another league title, though, won?t be easy. Several teams are capable of pulling off an upset, including Archbishop Spalding (14-2 overall, 8-1 league), Chapelgate Christian (11-4, 7-2) Mount de Sales (10-6, 6-3) and Seton Keough (11-6, 5-4).
“The IAAM has just gotten so much stronger over the last couple of years,” Wilkinson said. “We have a lot of great quality coaches now instead of just people there to fill a spot. We also have more girls playing on club teams to the point where teams lose a quality player to graduation and now they just reload.”
