LYNN — Despite a late rally, the slow start the St. Mary’s volleyball team got off to turned out to be too much to overcome in a loss to Austin Prep, 3-0, at Conigliaro Gymnasium Tuesday evening. The Spartans fell by set scores of 10-25, 20-25, 20-25.
“We started off slow today, which is kind of our tendency this season,” said St. Mary’s coach Mike McDuffee. “We gave away a lot of points early, but overall I thought we played well in the second and third sets. Not exactly enough to win but we still played well out there.”
It was certainly not the best start for the Spartans, who fell behind 8-2 in the first set before calling a timeout to regroup. But the timeout didn’t do much good, as Austin Prep extended its lead to 17-4 before eventually taking the set with ease.
St. Mary’s got off to a better start in the second set, jumping out to an early 3-1 lead. But Austin Prep wouldn’t go away that easily and rallied back to tie the score at 6-6. The Spartans again jumped ahead 11-7, but then the Cougars tied it again at 13-13. After that Austin Prep grabbed a foothold and never looked back, holding the lead the rest of the way to win the set.
The third set saw Austin Prep continue its momentum, jumping out to 12-6 lead before St. Mary’s called a timeout. Despite a number of small rallies the rest of the way, the Spartans could never quite get close enough to challenge for the set.
“We put on a few good runs in those last two sets, which was good to see,” McDuffee said. “We have the talent to get the job done out there, it’s just the mental aspect of the game that gets in our way at times. The girls realize that, and they’re constantly working to get better at it.”
It’s been a year of growth for St. Mary’s this season, as the Spartans have had to deal with losing one of their best players. After senior Grace Fielding broke her hand a couple of weeks ago, McDuffee has been rotating through a lot of different lineup changes to see what will work.
“When you lose a cornerstone player like that, it makes you have to shuffle the lineup around quite a bit,” McDuffee said. “It takes some time to see who can play in what positions and what combinations of players work best out there. We were working through some more stuff today, and it’s kind of a constant shuffle for us.”
Going forward, the Spartans have quite a bit of work to do if they want to taste the postseason. With a record of 5-10, St. Mary’s will pretty much have to win out in order to get into the state tournament. If that doesn’t end up happening, then the Lynn City Tournament that comes around at the end of the season will be something worth playing for.
“We are still mathematically in the hunt for the state tournament, so that’s certainly where our focus is at this point,” said McDuffee. “If the city tournament ends up being the biggest thing we play for this year, that’s still a really good prize. But the girls all want to get into the tournament, and that’s what we’re working toward.”
St. Mary’s plays on the road against CCL opponent Cardinal Spellman Thursday.
