By JEREMY TEPPER
MVI Sports
As Tanner Patrick sees it, the Thomas Jefferson volleyball team is too close to have lost on Wednesday.
Seniors like Patrick, Abby Chalovich, Tyler Turk, Natasha Yanief and Ashleigh Haines have grown up together and played volleyball together for years. Those years have formed an especially bonded team and an especially skilled one, one that advanced to the WPIAL Class 3A championship Wednesday with a 3-1 victory over South Fayette.
The Jaguars (18-1) dropped the first set, 25-22, but never blinked.
Spirits stayed high and the Jaguars played like a fine-tuned machine advancing to the championship for the second consecutive year.
Thomas Jefferson will play Knoch in a rematch of last year’s championship.
“A lot of people talk about their relationship off the court, but it’s special with this team,” said Patrick, the Jaguars’ senior libero. “I’ve played a lot of sports, and have been on a bunch of teams, and it’s just different when you’re playing with your best friends.”
In the first set, the Jaguars were just a bit off. Serving, the hitting and the defense were all fine or even good, but not quite good enough. The Jaguars tied it at 18 and then 22 after falling behind, but the Lions pulled it out after a Jaguars’ kill attempt went out of bounds.
“I think we were hesitant in the first set, and we struggle with that a lot. We try to be too careful, and it ends up hurting us,” Patrick said. “Usually our talk afterwards is about being explosive, being aggressive and not being hesitant.”
The Jaguars were the aggressor afterwards.
The defense was sharp, and the hitting was top notch. Turk, Haines and Julia Palmer were there to squash any Lions’ attempt to rally with a paralyzing kill or another great play. They proceeded to win the set 25-10.
“That set the mood for the rest of the game,” Chalovich said. “Especially coming off the loss, to respond with a huge win was so important.”
The third set was more competitive, but the Jaguars were up to the challenge. The teams went back and forth, before the Jaguars went on a run to go up 13-10. Heading the run was a big dig from Patrick, who dove and hit the ball before eventually setting up a kill by Haines.
“Those are the kind of balls that whenever something like that happens, you feel unstoppable,” Patrick said.
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