Bel Air boys volleyball sweeps Patterson Mill for second straight Harford County championship

Patterson Mill and Bel Air’s boys volleyball teams squared off for the title of Harford County champions for the second straight year.

The host Bobcats swept the Huskies, 3-0, for their second straight Harford County title. The set scores were 25-21, 25-23, 25-10.

“We had a lot of momentum going into this game and earlier this year we beat them two times and we knew that statistically, it’s really hard to beat a team three times in a row,” junior hitter Chris Couch said. “So, coming into this game, we were really focused and we really just wanted to win this game and I think we wanted to win it more than they did. So, we came out, played our hearts out and won the game.”

Couch was the leader of the power game, putting down a match-high 16 kills.

Bel Air's Chris Couch gets up to make the hit during the Harford County boys volleyball championship against Patterson Mill on Wednesday. (Matt Button / The Aegis/Baltimore Sun Media)

In the first set, a back-and-forth battle, it was a service error that had the Huskies within two, 23-21, but Patterson Mill followed with a serve error of its own which put Bel Air on set point. The Bobcats scored the next point on Couch’s lone ace to close out the set.

The second set featured more back-and-forth action early. A Javier de Gordon block had Patterson Mill ahead, 5-3, but two aces by Jason Corcoran pushed Bel Air ahead.The Huskies slipped back ahead, 10-8, on a Aidan Mackowiak kill, but a block from Tom Silver later tied the set at 11.

The Bobcats built some separation with serve points from Spencer Schulze and built the lead to 21-16 before the Huskies charged back to pull even at 21.

Tied again at 23, Silver pushed Bel Air ahead with a block and it was a Silver set for a Corcoran kill, one of his four, to end the second set. Silver tossed up 26 assists in the match.

“Unfortunately, and I don’t normally say this, the first two sets the referees were an impact,” Huskies coach Richard Moyers said. “I’m a referee myself, I don’t normally say that, but when you’ve got this tight of a set, every point, every inch matters and tonight that did play.”

Moyers says when calls went against his club, it had a hard time responding.

“Our challenge was, we couldn’t let it go. It was a bad call, but then it cost us another three points to reset ourselves,” Moyers said. “First two sets I was pleased with because we played the game that we wanted to play. It was those little inches that cost us. Last set was a cacophony of angst.”

Bel Air's Tom Silver celebrates with his teammates after his serving streak helped his team defeat Patterson Mill in three sets to win the Harford County boys volleyball championship Wednesday at Bel Air. (Matt Button / The Aegis/Baltimore Sun Media)

That last set was really tight up to a 9-9 tie, but Silver changed it with his challenging serve.

“It was a lot of points,” Silver said. “I was doing a generic float serve and they just couldn’t get it up. I made sure to place it well and it just worked out. They couldn’t receive it properly and it was points constant for us.”

The serves worked so well that once Silver left the line, the Bobcats were on match point. “Our momentum was perpetually increased after every single point until the very end,” Silver said.

The match ended on the next serve, a Huskies errant serve into the net.

Zach Rey added five kills for the Bobcats. Adam Lingelbach and de Gordon led the Huskies with eight kills and two aces each.