Girls Volleyball: Whetstone captures first City championship since 1992 in five-set thriller
Thursday, October 19, 2023
By Michael Rich
mrich@cbussports.com
The Whetstone girls volleyball team poses with the championship trophy after capturing its first City League title since 1992. Photo: Kevin Lam
The fact that the Whetstone girls volleyball team hadn’t won a City League championship since 1992 was not lost on Lydia Pratt as she served for the match in the fifth set.
The senior middle hitter calmly served up a match-clinching ace in Whetstone’s 25-17, 25-23, 22-25, 19-25, 17-15 marathon win over Briggs on Oct. 19 at East. It was a match that featured all the ups and downs of an ocean during storm season.
“It was really stressful and I definitely felt it in my stomach and in my chest,” said Pratt, who served up five aces in the match. “(Winning the City title is) insane. (The fifth set) was crazy, but we worked hard and we pushed through. This year, we really worked hard to play as a team and being a family.”
It was Whetstone’s fifth appearance in the City title game since 2017 when it ended Centennial’s eight-year reign. That included a five-set loss to the Bruins last year.
Briggs junior Josie Sloan digs the ball during the Bruins’ match with Whetstone for the City League championship Oct. 19. Photo : Kevin Lam
Whetstone (18-5), which went undefeated in league play during the regular season for the first time in program history according to coach Errole Rembert, controlled the first two sets and was poised to wrap it up in the third with a 21-19 lead.
But aces by Jasmine Truss and Dakota Williams highlighted a 6-1 rally to help the Bruins (17-6) extend the match.
Williams seemingly had a point won in the third set that was reversed and Ava Zornes followed with an ace to extend Whetstone’s lead to 13-6 in the fourth set.
But Briggs rallied for 19 of the last 25 points to take the set. Williams and Josie Sloan each had a pair of aces to highlight the rally.
“We won’t quit,” said Briggs coach Herb Sharfenaker, whose team won its first City title last season. “We’ve done it all year. That’s our motto. We will never give up, we will fight to the end and we will leave it all on the court.”
Whetstone’s Ava Zornes bumps the ball during the Braves’ victory over Briggs to win the City League championship Oct. 19. Photo: Kevin Lam
Sharfenaker pointed to Brianna Dowell as proof. Dowell was Briggs’ setter last season, but changed positions to get Rose Sanabria-Nieves on the court.
“Rose is a very good setter and so is Brianna Dowell,” Sharfenaker said. “But they just want to win and that’s the thing. We fell short by two points tonight, but they will fight all the time.”
Whetstone finally found its footing again in the fifth set after trailing 6-2. Catherine Pierce had a pair of blocks and a kill and Carly Paugh added an ace and a kill to lead Whetstone in the set.
“It was a good match with two teams about as even as they could be,” Rembert said. “(Pratt) hit the ball well and so did (Paugh and Zornes). We depend on those three all the time. When they’re on, we’re on.”
The match was the final one of the season for both teams after first-round losses in the Division I district tournament. Whetstone, seeded 37th, fell at 21st-seeded Westerville North in three sets on Oct. 16 in and 33rd-seeded Briggs lost at 27th-seeded Chillicothe in straight sets on Oct. 17.