Hall finds its groove at Princeton

PRINCETON – The Hall volleyball team had been doing a little soul-searching lately.

On the way to Thursday’s match at Princeton, they found it.

The Red Devils won the first set 25-22 and the second set 25-22 to take the Three Rivers Conference East match over the rival Tigresses.

Hall coach Carolyn Foster and senior Kennedy Wozniak said the Red Devils have been working on team building activities lately and it showed Thursday.

“Just having that trust in each other and playing for the team,” Foster said. “Girls sports don’t get enough credit. I said you can’t expect that big huge crowd. You’ve got to do it for yourselves. They created their own energy. They created their own excitement. Coming up with new cheers. Everything to get excited about it.”

“We’ve been having team dinners and practicing cheers, little things like that,” Wozniak said. “I’ve personally been wanting this [beating Princeton] the past four years. I’m glad we got it.”

As far as the team cheers go, Wozniak said “we just come up with them and then we laugh, and we always just pick the strangest one and go with it and laugh about it a 100 times.”

There was no laughing the last time Hall played Princeton. Wozniak hasn’t forgotten the score.

“It was 25-5. It was rough,” she said.

Hall (14-13) took leads of 8-2 and 13-9 in the first set before the Tigresses (18-13) found their game.

Kathy Maciczak made a block, senior Karsyn Brucker and Keely Lawson had kills to run Princeton to a 15-13 lead.

Wozniak made plays at the net at pivotal times, hitting for a 16-15 lead, making blocks for leads of 18-16 and 19-18.

Caroline Morris followed a play by Charlie Pellegrini with a kill to run Hall to a 21-18 lead. Morris added a block to send Hall to 24-20.

Emma McCook hit for game point for a 25-22 winner.

PHS coach Andy Puck took full responsibility for his team coming out flat.

“I didn’t have our kids ready to play,” he said. “Hall wanted it a lot more. Unfortunately, we just didn’t push back. We’ve been working really hard in practice and our last few matches to get over these mental errors and tonight we really exposed ourselves. We should be a lot tougher mentally right now, and that’s all on me.

“We played well in glimpses. Hall just wanted it a lot more. Their energy was a lot better than ours. We just expected them to roll over and it’s not going to happen. Give Hall all the credit in the world.”

Hall had to battle back throughout the second set, falling behind at 10-6, 13-10 and 19-15 after a kill by Lawson.

Wozniak served two aces in a three-point string to tie the game at 19.

Evelyn Bryant came up big with a pair of aces to push the Red Devils to a 22-20 edge. Kaitlyn Coutts finished it off with another ace for match point at 25-22.

“After the last time we played them, this was huge for their confidence,” Foster said. “We’ve been working on that and definitely been playing for themselves and their team than anyone else. It was awesome to see.

“We melted the last time we played them, but they’ve come a long way since that last time. It’s a different team, so I’m hoping they continue to bring it next time.”

Wozniak said this may be the Red Devils’ best match of the year.

“Probably felt like it. Only other I can think of is Serena. That was our second game,” Wozniak said. “That game felt very similar to tonight with the level of energy, the amount we talked. It all came out together at the end. I’m glad we came out with a win.”

Not only did Hall spoil Princeton’s senior night for Brucker and Ellie Harp, they snapped the Tigresses’ win streak at seven and prevented Puck from overtaking former coach Rita Placek as the program’s all-time winningest coach. Both Puck and Plack have 493 coaching wins at PHS.

“I can’t thank our seniors enough,” Puck said. “Karsyn’s not had the season she wanted because of injuries. She came out tonight and battled. Ellie’s been a rock for us all season. They’re both captains this year, and we were really wanting to send them out the last home game with a win.”

Wozniak and Morris each delivered five kills for Hall with Wozniak and Coutts making two blocks apiece. Coutts and Bryant led the back row with 12 digs each and Pellegrini added 10. Morgan Hoscheid had 11 assists.

For PHS, Keighley Davis had five kills, Makayla Hecht had 13 assists, Camryn Driscoll had 13 digs and Harp had 10 points.