Volleyball playoffs: North Hagerstown, Clear Spring to play for state titles

Class 3A semifinals

North Hagerstown 3, Magruder 1

The Hubs are one step further in the playoffs than they reached one year ago.

Only one more victory will satisfy them.

"Everybody knows that's the only goal, to win a state championship," said senior Gabby Grantham-Medley, who had 20 kills and 18 digs as North (18-1) put away the Colonels (22-2) in four sets, 25-14, 25-18, 23-25, 25-17, at Thomas Johnson on Monday.

The Hubs will face Northern Calvert (18-1), a four-set winner over Crofton on Monday, for the 3A title Wednesday at 7 p.m. at APG Federal Credit Union Arena on the Harford Community College campus. North will be seeking its first championship since 2014 and fourth overall.

"These girls work hard day in and day out, and last year really sticks with them," said Hubs coach Megan Crawford. "They knew they needed to close it out tonight, and everybody helped. I couldn't be more proud of them."

Aubrey Chamberlin had 47 assists and 10 digs, Armani Kenney had 15 kills and five blocks, Kayla Turner had 10 kills and six blocks, Caydence Doolan had 11 kills, Marley Knight had 15 digs and Sydney Wilt added 13 digs for North.

The Hubs played a brilliant opening set, finishing with 19 kills and two aces to overpower Magruder. The Hubs came from all angles, leaving the Colonels' defense helpless as Grantham-Medley had seven kills, Kenney had four kills and Turner and Doolan added three kills each.

"I think it was definitely tough for the other team, especially when we're all on and all playing with energy," Kenney said. "We feed off each other's energy."

"I just know if I was on the other side of the court, I'd be real confused at all times," said Grantham-Medley.

Magruder got into the match more in the second set, especially defensively, but North was still too much. Kenney had four kills, two blocks and an ace, Grantham-Medley had four kills and Doolan added two kills and a block.

"We came out with a lot of energy and didn't make a lot of errors the first game. We found the holes, we were passing well, we were able to run our offense," Crawford said. "I think Game 2, (the Colonels) adjusted a little bit and were picking up our tips. We had a couple more hitting errors and weren't as crisp as we should have been, but we got out of (the game)."

Magruder made another adjustment in the third set, keeping its star — 6-foot-1 senior Kristen Jennings, who had nine kills in the first two sets — on the floor when in the back row. Jennings had eight kills and two aces in the set, including a kill on set point. The Hubs hurt themselves with eight errors.

"Their big hitter, the goal was to keep her in the back row as long as we could, and we did a good job of that in Game 1 and Game 2," Crawford said. "The third game, she was up there quite a bit and that hurt us. When you have a girl that tall who can swing that well, and we're sending free balls over, it's hard to defend. We had times we could have pulled out that game, but silly errors here and there hurt us."

Leading 14-13 in Set 4, the Hubs closed out the match strong with an 11-4 run. Grantham-Medley had four kills and a block in the closing stretch, and Turner came up big with two blocks and a kill during the run.

"We just acknowledged that we became a little complacent, and I feel like we knew what we had to do to get back to where we were in the first and second sets," Grantham-Medley said. "We brought back that same energy."

Class 1A semifinals

Clear Spring 3, Forest Park 0

The Blazers (17-2) are one victory away from their fourth state title and second in five years.

Ella Papa had eight kills, Audrey Allen added seven kills and Clear Spring rolled to a 25-9, 25-6, 25-14 sweep Monday at Watkins Mill.

The Blazers will face South Carroll — a five-set winner over Patterson Mill in Monday’s other semifinal at Thomas Johnson — for the title Wednesday at 5 p.m. at Harford Community College.

“We need to come in with high energy and everybody doing their jobs,” said Clear Spring coach Jess Custer. “The girls are really inspired and the community is really behind us.”

Custer put the team through an early-morning workout in advance of the semifinal: “Mondays have been our nemesis, so we had a practice to get them going for today,” she said.

Hailey Ernst had 12 assists, Emerson Moats had eight digs, Faith Moore had five aces and Callie Hose added three aces for Clear Spring.

“Everybody has had a contribution to our (last two) wins, which is awesome,” Custer said.

Class 3A quarterfinals

North Hagerstown 3, River Hill 0

Hubs senior Gabby Grantham-Medley is determined to go out with a bang.

The reigning Herald-Mail Washington County player of the year rocked the Hawks (13-3) with 20 bangs — or kills, as they are more commonly known — and eight digs on Friday as the host Hubs (17-1) ran away with a 25-14, 25-22, 25-12 sweep.

"I think everybody realized this would be our last game in this gym, so let's leave it all on the floor," said Grantham-Medley.

"I can't say enough about her. She knows when to pick her game up and she was really on tonight," said North coach Megan Crawford. "Everybody feeds off of her, and everybody did a great job. (River Hill) has a great program and we really played well tonight. We didn't let up from the beginning."

North Hagerstown will face undefeated Magruder (17-0), which swept Baltimore Polytechnic in its quarterfinal matchup, at Thomas Johnson in Monday's semifinals at 7 p.m. The Hubs fell to eventual champion Reservoir in five sets in last year's state semifinals.

"It only matters what we do on our side," said Crawford. "I'm very fortunate to have a group of girls who have played together for several years and have that common goal (of a state title)."

Everything Grantham-Medley touched seemed to turn to gold, especially in the third set when she helped close River Hill out with eight kills on 11 attempts. Even her free balls were dangerous Friday, with two of them resulting in kills.

"(River Hill) definitely wasn't comfortable passing on balls outside their body, so it was just a matter of placing it where whey were not at," said Grantham-Medley.

Aubrey Chamberlin had 37 assists and Marley Knight had 13 digs for North. Armani Kenney had 10 kills, Caydence Doolan had six kills and Sophia Williams added six digs.

Class 1A quarterfinals

Clear Spring 3, Dunbar 0

The host Blazers (16-2) swept the visiting Poets 25-4, 25-7, 25-5 behind a powerful serving performance on Friday night.

It was a relatively stress-free final contest on their home floor for Clear Spring's four seniors.

"I told the seniors before the game, regardless of whether you win or lose, we've played as many games as we could on our home floor," said Blazers coach Jess Custer. "The last two points of the match, I subbed all the seniors back in so they could end the match on the floor together."

Clear Spring will face Forest Park (12-3), a winner over CMIT North in five sets on Friday, at Watkins Mill in Monday's semifinals at 5 p.m.

Amber Witmer led the way with 12 aces, Lizzie Lawson served five aces, Callie Hose, Faith Moore and Kailyn McCauley had four aces each and Bryanna Josenhans served up three aces. Morgan Householder had five kills, Audrey Allen had four kills, Ella Papa had three kills and Emilee Hixon added seven assists.

"I rotated everybody in, even the JV kids," Custer said. "It was a total team effort. It was a happy moment. Everyone was thankful they got to do that."

1A West Region II final

Clear Spring 3, Smithsburg 2

The top-seeded Blazers are into the state quarterfinals.

It was anything but easy.

Getting out of Washington County rarely is.

Hailey Ernst had 51 assists and 10 digs, Morgan Householder had 14 kills and 10 digs, and Clear Spring (15-2) prevailed in a five-set thriller at home against a county rival for the second time in three days.

The hard-fighting, third-seeded Leopards (13-5) made the Blazers earn every bit of Wednesday's 20-25, 25-22, 25-14, 21-25, 15-11 victory that gave Clear Spring its first region title since claiming the 2018 state title — which also included a five-set win over Smithsburg.

"I don't ever underestimate anybody (in this county). They always come to play," said Blazers coach Jess Custer. "In the playoffs, everybody always plays their best games. For a first-year coach (Bri Metzger) to have Smithsburg playing like that, it's amazing."

Once again, Clear Spring came through in a pressure-packed spot. On Monday, Williamsport had the Blazers on the ropes with a 2-1 lead, but Clear Spring claimed the final two sets. On Wednesday, the Leopards played a brilliant first set — finishing with 16 kills and just four errors — and later won the fourth set to force a fifth-set race to 15.

"These kids have a work ethic like no others. They are calm and collected," Custer said. "Our seniors really do a great job leadership-wise, and all of these kids, from the oldest to the youngest, are so mentally tough."

The final stats largely reflect how close the two teams were. The Blazers finished the match with 105 points on 56 kills, nine aces, six blocks and 34 Leopards errors. Smithsburg had 97 points on 53 kills, two aces, four blocks and 38 Clear Spring errors.

"We came out today knowing it would be a battle. Clear Spring is a great team," said Metzger. "We came out wanting to play hard and aggressive. That's why it was such a great match. We were playing to win, not playing not to lose."

Faith Moore had 10 kills, Papa had nine kills, Audrey Allen had eight kills and three blocks, Emerson Moats had 18 digs, Lizzie Lawson had 14 digs and Callie Hose added 10 digs for the Blazers, who are the top seed in the state tournament and will host Dunbar on Friday at 7 p.m.

History is now on Clear Spring's side — Washington County teams have won 29 of the last 40 Class 1A state titles, including the last seven straight.

Libero Sid Cecco had a second straight massive game with 35 digs and Kassidy Meadows had 25 digs for Smithsburg. Chloe Fisher had 43 assists and 15 digs, Kylie Snyder had 15 kills and 11 digs, Emily Ryder had 14 kills, Brooke Callahan had eight kills and Savannah Parker added six kills.

3A West Region I final

North Hagerstown 3, Linganore 0

Gabby Grantham-Medley had 14 kills and 10 digs, Aubrey Chamberlin had 29 assists and the host Hubs (16-1) rolled to their second straight region title Wednesday, sweeping the Lancers 25-19, 25-8, 25-12 to advance to the state quarterfinals.

“Give all the credit to Linganore (9-8),” North coach Megan Crawford said. “They’re much improved from the first time we played them this season. They gave us a run in that first set.”

The Hubs appeared to be more in sync than in Monday’s semifinal win over South Hagerstown.

“Overall, we played much better,” Crawford said. “It all starts with the pass, and we passed well tonight. And we served tough.”

The Hubs scored 19 straight points between the second and third sets to take control, with Sophia Williams at the service line for the final 13 of Set 2.

Also for North, Marley Knight and Williams each had 10 digs, Sydney Wilt had eight digs and Kayla Turner had six kills.

Grantham-Medley said the Hubs will need to be even sharper moving forward as they chase the program’s first state title since 2014.

“We feel pretty good, but we understand that we have to work harder than what we’ve been doing to achieve our goals,” Grantham-Medley said. “Just having everybody on at the same time is very important for us to get that success that we want.

“There were moments tonight that showed it, but we had a couple breakdowns, which we can’t have in the next couple games.”

North will host River Hill in the state quarterfinals Friday at 6 p.m.

“It’s going to be competitive no matter who we play or where we play,” Crawford said. “It’s really all about what we do, so hopefully we continue to bring energy and play like we did tonight, and we’ll take it one game at a time.”

3A West Region I semifinals

North Hagerstown 3, South Hagerstown 0

In their first match in 11 days, the No. 1-seeded Hubs shook off some rust, along with the No. 5 Rebels, in a 25-14, 25-14, 25-13 sweep Monday.

For North (15-1), which had a bye in the quarterfinals, Aubrey Chamberlin had 28 assists and 11 digs, Gabby Grantham-Medley had 13 kills and eight digs, Armani Kenney, Kayla Turner and Caydence Doolan each had seven kills and Marley Knight added 10 digs.

“We’ve been off a week, we came in, got a playoff game under our belt and are happy with a win,” North coach Megan Crawford said. “But we didn’t pass real well tonight, serve receive, and didn’t move our feet much on defense. For us to be successful down the road, we’re going to have to do those things. We didn’t have many hitting errors tonight, so that’s a plus, but we weren’t able to run our offense like we should have.

“We’ll just keep working.”

The Hubs will host No. 3 Linganore in the region final Wednesday at 6 p.m. in their quest for their first state title since 2014. North lost in the state semis last year.

For South (5-10) on Monday, Madi Wade had 11 kills, Emily Cunanan had 24 assists and Malea Moore had eight digs.

1A West Region II semifinals

Smithsburg 3, Boonsboro 1

In an exact reversal of their regular-season match on Oct. 20, the third-seeded Leopards (13-4) staggered the second-seeded and host Warriors (12-5) by rallying from a 24-18 deficit in the second set to take a 2-0 lead on the way to a 25-21, 27-25, 20-25, 25-18 upset.

"The last time we played Boonsboro, they did the same thing to us," said Smithsburg coach Bri Metzger. "So doing that and going up 2-0 gave us a confidence boost to know we could win this thing."

Several Leopards had a hand in the 9-1 run to close the second set. Chloe Fisher, Bailey King, Kylie Snyder, Savannah Parker and Kassidy Meadows each had a kill, with Parker's coming on set point.

"Our motto is 'all in,'" said Metzger. "Everyone was locked in and playing together, working toward one goal."

For the match, Sid Cecco had 36 digs in a stellar effort in the back row for the Leopards. Fisher had 32 assists, 13 digs and eight aces, Meadows had 12 digs and six kills, Snyder had nine kills and Emily Ryder added eight kills.

Smithsburg took control of the opening set with a nine-point run that gave the Leopards a 19-12 lead. Boonsboro got within 24-21 on a Cami Row kill, but a serving error ended the set.

To their credit, the Warriors bounced back to win the third set, building an early 12-6 lead and never trailing from there. But the Leopards opened the fourth set with a 5-0 run including a pair of Fisher aces, and eventually led 11-4. Boonsboro battled back within 18-16, but Smithsburg closed the set and the match with a 7-2 run.

"Our girls just got a little overwhelmed with their own expectations," said Warriors coach Shelby Wallace, whose team won the CMC Gambrill title. "This has been one of our most successful seasons overall, so when things started going against them … the emotions were flowing."

Rosslyn Briggs had 13 kills and 15 digs, Lauren Jones ahd 18 assists, 15 digs and four aces, Anna Kate Davis had 23 assists and Breann Reed added 15 digs and three aces for Boonsboro. Row had nine kills, Hannah Culver had six kills and three aces, Megan Culver had six kills and Larissa Blair added five kills.

"They have to know they worked hard all season, and even though this match didn't go their way, that doesn't mean you throw it all away," Wallace said.

Clear Spring 3, Williamsport 2

The top-seeded Blazers (14-2) edged the fourth-seeded and defending state champion Wildcats (10-6), rallying from a 2-1 deficit in a 27-29, 25-16, 20-25, 25-19, 15-9 victory.

"I told (Williamsport coach) Karen (Hampton) last night that was a totally different team than in the regular season," said Clear Spring coach Jess Custer. "They came out firing and played a tremendous match.

"We knew it was going to come down to the fifth set. I just told them, 'This is it and if you want to win, you have to dig deep and give everything you have.' They put it together."

For the Blazers, Hailey Ernst had 30 assists and 17 digs, Emerson Moats had 21 digs, Addy Zeigler had 11 kills, eight aces and three blocks, Morgan Householder had 11 kills, Audrey Allen had eight kills and Ella Papa added seven kills.

Clear Spring will host Smithsburg in the region final Wednesday at 6 p.m.

For Williamsport, Emerson Shank had 40 assists and 18 digs, Everly Harsh had 25 digs, Grace Caudell had 11 kills, four blocks and 17 digs, Chevelle Cruz had seven kills, three aces and 14 digs, Olivia Smith had six kills and three blocks, Sklylar Norris had five kills and five blocks, Heaven Jarvis had five kills and Ava Kline added five blocks.

1A West Region II quarterfinals

Smithsburg 3, Hancock 0

Chloe Fisher had 27 assists and five kills, and the host and third-seeded Leopards (12-4) swept to a 25-12, 25-4, 25-6 victory over the sixth-seeded Panthers (3-12) on Friday.

Savannah Parker had nine kills, Camryn Eichelberger served eight aces, Brooke Callahan had seven kills and Kylie Snyder added five kills for Smithsburg, which will travel to face second-seeded Boonsboro on Monday.

Williamsport 3, Catoctin 1

Olivia Smith had 14 kills and nine digs, Skylar Norris had 10 kills and three blocks, and the host and fourth-seeded Wildcats (10-5) eliminated the fifth-seeded Cougars 25-20, 18-25, 25-11, 25-22 on Thursday.

Emerson Shank had 41 assists and four aces, Chevelle Cruz had eight kills and 12 digs, Grace Caudell had six kills and Heaven Jarvis added five kills for Williamsport, which will travel to top-seeded Clear Spring on Monday.

Boonsboro 3, Brunswick 0

Anna Kate Davis had 18 assists and five aces, Katie Goddard added 11 digs and the second-seeded and host Warriors swept the seventh-seeded Railroaders 25-11, 25-9, 25-10 on Thursday.

Cami Row and Hannah Culver led the attack with six kills each and Breann Reed added nine digs and six aces for Boonsboro (12-4), which will host the winner of Friday's game between Smithsburg and Hancock on Monday in the region semifinals.

Lauren Jones had nine assists and three aces for the Warriors.

3A West Region I quarterfinals

South Hagerstown 3, Thomas Johnson 0

The fifth-seeded Rebels (5-9) went on the road and swept the fourth-seeded Patriots 25-18, 25-18, 25-17 on Thursday.

Grace Knox had 13 kills, Madi Wade had 12 kills and Reese Sitter had eight kills and three aces to lead the offense. Emily Cunanan had 27 assists and Malea Moore had 14 digs.

South will travel to play top-seeded rival North Hagerstown on Monday.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: 2022 Washington County volleyball playoffs roundup