TWO IN A ROW: Catholic repeats state title in volleyball

Catholic’s Zaria Rudolph blocks the shot of UMS-Wright’s Josie Jaye in the Class 4A finals at the Bill Harris Arena on Thursday. (Photo courtesy David Holtzford/AHSAA)

By TIM GAYLE

BIRMINGHAM -- Catholic completed its return to the Alabama High School Athletic Association state volleyball tournament with a sweep of UMS-Wright on Thursday to win the Knights their second consecutive 4A state championship.

The Knights (37-11) last dropped a set in a home match against Trinity for the area championship, reeling off four games in the super regional and three more in the state tournament with 3-0 victories.

On Thursday, they topped the Bulldogs 25-19, 25-23 and 25-19 for their second sweep of UMS-Wright in a week after beating the Bulldogs in the finals of the South Super Regional.

Setter Maria Schwarz was named the tournament’s most valuable player after recording three kills, 27 assists, four aces and nine digs in the championship match.

She was joined on the all-tournament team by teammates Grace Levanda, Mally Barranco and Harper Howell as well as Josie Jaye and Noel Freeman of UMS-Wright. Levanda had eight kills, Barranco had three aces and 17 digs and Howell had 11 kills and a pair of blocks.

In addition, Joi McGuire had seven digs and a pair of kills, Zaria Rudolph had four kills, five digs and three blocks and Kathryn Reardon had seven kills and eight digs.

In the first set, three kills by Reardon and three serves by Barranco helped the Knights to a 7-1 run that rallied Catholic from an early deficit. The Knights finished off the Bulldogs by scoring the last four points in the set.

The second set was the most hotly contested of the three as Catholic fell behind early, gave up five straight points and then rallied for five straight to grab a 19-16 lead. A late rally by the Bulldogs trimmed the Catholic lead to 24-23 before the Knights scored the final point.

In the third set, Catholic trailed 5-1 before scoring 11 of the next 13 points to take control of the set as well as the match.

After reaching the finals in each of the last two seasons, Catholic will be elevated to Class 5A in volleyball next season by the Competitive Balance Factor. UMS-Wright (28-14), which did not make it out of the area last season, will remain in Class 4A.

Catholic’s match with UMS-Wright was one of three championship matches on Thursday.

In 7A, McGill-Toolen (46-8) defeated Bob Jones (54-3), 23-25, 25-22, 25-17 and 25-19, while in 1A Spring Garden (54-5) swept University Charter (35-5) 25-12, 26-24 and 25-11.