Gilman completes an improbable run to the 2024 MIAA volleyball championship
The fifth-seeded Greyhounds sweep two-time defending champion Mount St. Joe in the finals
by Nelson Coffin
While it’s not fair to say Gilman came out of nowhere to collect the program’s eighth MIAA volleyball title, the Greyhounds, after all, were the fifth seed heading into the six-team postseason tournament.
After going on the road to edge both fourth-seeded Calvert Hall and top-seeded Archbishop Spalding earlier in the week, Gilman (15-6) was not to be denied when it confronted second-seeded Mount St. Joseph (17-3) in Friday’s A Conference final at St. Paul’s.
The Greyhounds rarely trailed in the 25-19, 25-14, 25-19 sweep to claim their first league crown since 2018, using a strong defense and some power swings at the net to dethrone the second-seeded Gaels, who swept Loyola Blakefield, 3-0, to earn the right to compete for a three-peat.
Mount St. Joseph coach Sam Bianco was unequivocal in his assessment of what transpired to his team in the match.
From Bianco’s perspective, it wasn’t what missteps the Gaels made, it was more about what the Greyhounds did.
“In my 20 years of coaching, I’ve never seen a performance like the one Gilman put on tonight,” Bianco said. “They just didn’t miss. We had a game plan, but they took us out of it. Hats off to them. We ran into a buzz saw.”
The Gaels didn’t go down without a fight, rallying to tie the third set at 17-17 on a block by senior opposite hitter Matthew Buchness and a kill by senior outside hitter Jude Ross.
The Greyhounds, however, regained the lead for good on a kill by junior opposite Rohan Vesely and eventually finished off the set on four consecutive kills by senior outside hitter Jackson Heether and close-out kill by junior middle hitter Jay Salovaara.
Coupled with the kind of wherewithal senior outside hitter Nicky Lawson provided — with a slew of kills throughout the match — Gilman was too much to handle.
His kill in the first set snapped a 12-12 deadlock and, with help via junior setter Hugh Ward’s ace, a Heether tip, a kill by senior middle hitter Fin Schanbacher, and blocks by Salovaara and junior opposite Alex Triplett, Gilman was able to pull away to go up, 1-0.
Gilman’s 14-3 run to finish the second set, after MSJ senior outside hitter Roger Frederickson’s tying kill, was ignited by back-to-back big swings by Lawson, who added four other kills during that rally.
With a 2-0 lead and an amped up crowd behind them, Gilman shook off St. Joe’s final comeback bid to secure the title.
“We started off slow, and we had a lot of close losses that we could have won,” Lawson said. “We were just one of those teams that were definitely underdogs the whole season. But come playoff time we knew what we had to do to get the job done. We have the most heart of any of the teams in the MIAA. All it took was some heart, and we got the job done.”
“It took us a minute to get started,” Heether said, noting that he had a 14-1 service run against Calvert Hall and authored several kills to help topple Spalding as well. We’re a slow team that takes a minute to get hot. But not tonight. We came out of the gates and we just went crazy.”
Gilman coach Diego Matorras said that the Greyhounds were building momentum as the playoffs approached.
“The goal is always to try to get better and improve,” he said. “We peaked at the right time, I guess. And yeah, things worked out.”
Gilman’s defensive effort against St. Joe’s hitters also keyed the victory, the coach added.
“Our block improved halfway through the season,” Matorras said, praising junior middle hitter Niko Eggers, Heether, Lawson, Triplett, Veseley, Salovaara ‘and Schanbacher for their defensive effort. “We have a lot of depth on our roster and our practices were always competitive. It took me the whole season to find a lineup because we have such a competitive group.”