Putting It All Together: Dunham Volleyball Scores Road Upset of St. Michael
by: William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
When the Dunham School’s volleyball team rallied from an opening set defeat to take a 2-1 lead Monday at St. Michael the Archangel, junior hitter Isa Richardson’s mind drifted back nearly a year to the exact scenario.
The Tigers were on the cusp of a potentially pivotal victory when the homestanding Warriors rallied for a 3-2 victory.
Richardson didn’t want history to repeat itself.
Division IV’s Dunham was up to the task, polishing off a 25-12 win in the fourth set to clinch the match with a 3-1 triumph over Division III’s St. Michael.
“We kind of had a bone to pick,” Richardson said. “We played with a chip on our shoulder. I felt we had a little unfinished business from last year. We wanted to come into the game and get that done. I felt when we were put in that same situation and having a sense of déjà vu, we wanted to keep the ball in play. Overall, we played like a really good team.”
Dunham’s already thin roster suffered a hit over the weekend with the loss of Amyri Robinson to an injury. That left the Tigers (18-6) with six available players to complete the 12-25, 25-20, 25-17, 25-12 victory over St. Michael (17-3), the No. 16 team in the VSN/Geaux Preps Power 25 rankings and stopped the Warriors’ 17-game winning streak.
“I think that’s the best we’ve played this season,” Dunham volleyball coach Meagan Harrington said. “Not necessarily power-wise on our attacks, but keeping balls alive, that’s the most consistent we’ve been all season.”
Less than two weeks ago St. Michael swept Dunham by a 2-0 score in the team’s tournament. The Tigers continued with tournament play at John Curtis and split matches with the No. 12 Patriots and put together a promising 3-1 showing in the event.
“When they’re in rhythm they’re difficult to stop,” St. Michael volleyball coach Rob Smith said of Dunham. “They have some pretty good highfliers that can bang balls. We’re pretty big, too, but any time you give a team the chance to put a ball away on you, they took advantage of it. They played really well. We played them a couple of weeks ago and they were better tonight.”
With setter Katherine McDonald directing the offense to 50 kills, Dunham had three players with double-digit kills. Sophomore Kennedi Owens had a team-high 14 kills and three block assists, with Richardson adding a double-double with 11 kills and11 digs) and sophomore Zadi Huggins had 10 kills.
McDonald ignited her team’s offense with 31 assists to go with six kills, and senior libero Lily Stringfellow, who missed the first matchup with St. Michael, keyed the defense with 18 digs and added five assists. Sophomore Bree Mills contributed five kills and four block assists.
“I think with that tournament game, and that first set, we were chaotic because we’re missing parts of our team,” McDonald said. “So, we settled down and played our game because we knew we were better than that. It helped out with how we were talking and communicating and that helped us play to our full potential.”
St. Michael didn’t show any effects of not having played in nearly a week in the first set. The Warriors broke free in a set that was tied three times with Ava Rodrigue serving four points, including an ace, and a 9-1 lead resulted in a 12-4 lead after a Dunham error.
Four aces and with Elizabeth Fitch and Mariella Gary taking turns running the offense, St. Michael stretched its lead to 21-11 on Bella Johnston’s kill. The Warriors scored four of the next five points with Gary registering consecutive assists on kills by Johnston and Bella LeBlanc.
“We came out and played OK in the first set,” Smith said. “The second set was tighter, and we lost. I messed up the lineup in the third and it threw us for a loop. By that time, Dunham was really on a roll with all the momentum. We weren’t doing some of the things we wanted to do. We didn’t handle that panic from the third set very well. It was kind of a perfect storm which was unfortunate for us.”
Richardson and Mills became more assertive in the second set which Dunham didn’t trail after taking a 4-3 lead on an error. McDonald served four points for an 11-5 lead and the Tigers expanded their lead to 15-8 on Richardson’s kill on a feed from McDonald.
St. Michael closed to within 17-14 on Johnston’s kill when Dunham answered an 8-4 surge, fueled by three kills from Huggins, to close out the set on Richardson’s kill.
“We just knew we could play better,” Richardson said “The only problem with the first set was that we weren’t communicating well. We were making some really silly mistakes that we don’t usually make. We needed to flip that switch in our minds and just say, ‘We know how to do this’.
“It doesn’t matter that we’re missing a player,” Richardson said. “We’ve done the same drills over and over again. We needed to put the ball in play and play as scrappy as we could. I think we did a good job of not trying to be perfect, but just kept the ball in play and I think we did really good with that.”
Dunham scored the first four points in the third set with Richardson serving and a tip from Huggins made it 8-4. The Tigers maintained at least a three-point lead throughout when the combination of Owens and Richardson put the set out of reach with a 7-2 run.
“This night was a big confidence booster for the team,” Owens said. “We had people playing positions that they normally don’t play. Collectively, coming together as a team and working as a unit really helped us.”
Dunham didn’t allow St. Michael an opportunity to get into the final set, building a 10-3 lead that led to a timeout following kills from Owens and a tip from Huggins, and a combined block from Mills and Huggins.
“We knew we had more to offer than that,” Herrington said of the first set. “We had a gameplan we didn’t follow it the first set. We just needed a gentle reminder that we were going to follow the gameplan and they did a great job of responding to it.”
With Huggins’ service resulting in five points and a 19-10 lead, Dunham could sense the finish line, and with Owens delivering four kills and Richardson two more, the Tigers successfully reached their destination.
“It’s 2-1, we said let’s go take care of business,” Owens said. “There was no mercy. We love them, but we had to take care of business.”