The Bishop Fenwick volleyball team’s strong 2020 season came to an end Thursday evening, as the No. 3 Crusaders fell to Catholic Central League foe No. 2 Austin Prep, 3-0, in a CCL Cup semifinal game. Fenwick fell in a competitive match by set scores of 26-24, 25-20, 25-22.
“It was a close match the whole way and it really was a back-and-forth effort,” said Fenwick coach Samantha Kelly. “Unfortunately we were missing one of our senior captains, Annie Murphy, and we had some trouble blocking and getting into a rhythm offensively.”
Senior captain Natalia Scolaro led the offensive attack for Fenwick in the loss, notching nine kills.
“Natalia really helped us set the tone today and she came up big for us on multiple occasions,” said Kelly.
Fenwick got off to a strong start in the match, taking a 24-20 lead in the first set and forcing Austin Prep into set point. But Austin Prep responded with a flurry, and that combined with some unforced errors by Fenwick led to the Crusaders dropping the set 26-24.
While the next two sets remained close from start to finish, Fenwick was never quite able to recapture that momentum that it started off the match with.
“We just made too many unforced errors and that was a little too much to come back from unfortunately,” said Kelly. “We had small runs where we were putting everything together, but then we’d make a mistake and hurt our momentum. It’s kind of been a theme with us all year, and it was just a little too much for us to overcome this time.”
Fenwick finishes the 2020 season with a 9-3 record. With nine seniors set to leave the program to graduation, Kelly looks back fondly on the group’s time at Fenwick.
“It’s a great group of girls and I told them after the match that I am so proud of them for what they’ve done this year,” said Kelly. “Their determination and mental strength in a year like this has been so impressive, and they really did a great job keeping the team together during a lot of uncertain times. It’s always tough when you lose a group of seniors as big as this one, but this group is really going to be tough to replace.”
