Marian rallies for Schuylkill League volleyball championship

POTTSVILLE – The Titanic sunk because it hit an iceberg, and over a century later it’s still a tale to remember.

Picture Marian’s volleyball team as the huge flotilla. Mighty like the titanic, invincible to some, and impregnable to a point that it would take a massive hit to bring it to its knees.

The Fillies were on bended knees a whole lot Thursday evening at Martz Hall, struggling to keep afloat.

Playing against a talented Blue Mountain team that was looking to defend its Schuylkill League championship, Marian and its undefeated season appeared to be on the verge of going down.

But somehow, some way, Marian managed to bail itself out of trouble and rally for a dramatic 3-2 five-set victory.

So how close were the Fillies to sinking? Blue Mountain (18-2) had rolled in the first two sets, winning 25-19 and 25-11.

“There was nowhere to run,” said Marian assistant coach Chris Fallabel, who was pinch-hitting for his father, Dr. John Fallabel, as commander-in-chief on the bench.

Of course there was nowhere to hide, either.

“Everyone thought we were going to lose,” said Gianna Agosti, one of the spark plugs on this resilient team. “But not us. No way were we giving in. There’s always a chance.”

To be sure, it definitely wasn’t over. Agosti knew it, so did Antonina Zeleniak, and so did Jasmine Mooney, the Fillies’ version of Wonder Woman. Actually, all the Marian players knew it.

And eventually anyone who was doubting the Fillies’ ability to rally from the early hole started to realize it to.

Marian picked off the third set 25-21.

The Fillies then miraculously rallied from being down 21-16 in the fourth set to pull out a 26-24 victory.

Marian then capped its climb from Death Valley to Happy Valley by finishing off a 15-13 win in the fifth set.

“When we won those first two sets our kids were emotionally high,” said Blue Mountain coach Nick Marrongelle. “Even when they won that third set, and we got to the fourth set, we still were riding an emotional high.

But it’s sometimes tough to explain to a bunch of 16, 17 and 18-year-old kids that you need to be mentally tough in certain situations. Marian is mentally tough, they proved it, they earned it, and they’re a great team to be able to come back and win the way they did.”

Marian never looked undone. The team was still swaggering, laughing, and looking like it was ahead — even when it trailed 2-0.

“That’s Marian volleyball,” laughed Fallabel. “But I will tell you one thing, if it weren’t for assistant coach Rachel Krajcirik coming to me and saying we have to make a change in the lineup, I don’t know if we would have won it… I mean that.”

Krajcirik’s suggested lineup and rotation adjustments were a game-changer.

In the third set, the Fillies staved off elimination using three straight kills from Mooney for a 25-21 victory.

In the fourth set, Marian trailed by six points — 19-13, 20-14 and 21-15 — on three different occassions.

But then Mooney took over. She put down a pair of kills, and then posted four straight aces to tie the game 21-21. Blue Mountain regained the lead, but Marian eventually pulled out the 26-24 win to force the fifth and final set.

“When we went down by two sets, there was nothing you could say that would grab their attention,” said Krajcirik. “Words really don’t matter at that time. You need to make plays on the court and that’s what our girls started doing.”

Trailing 9-7 in the fifth set, the Fillies got a pair of huge kills from Macie Mazalusky as Marian it forged ahead, 10-9. A pair of Blue Mountain errors eventually sent Marian ahead, 14-13.

With the undefeated season and a league championship on the line, Mooney made one last emphatic hit, stuffing a return shot for a kill, and culminating a fantastic finish.

“I just kept telling everyone that came off the bench, ‘we’re going to win. We’re not losing,’” said Mooney.

Wonder Woman was right.

GO FIGURE ... It took two straight five-set wins for Marian to win the league title and improve to 18-0 on the season. The Fillies upended previously undefeated Panther Valley in Tuesday’s semifinals in five sets, too.

COUNTING THE WAY ... Mooney had 30 kills and 13 aces; Agosti picked up 42 assists, Mazalusky was terrific with eight kills and Antonia Glasso scored 14 digs and three aces. Blue Mountain was led by Maddie Gordon with 11 kills and 7 blocks.

UP NEXT ... The District 11 playoffs begin next week. The Fillies are the No. 1 ranked team in Class A and the defending district champions.