Before last night's Class 4A state volleyball semifinal match, Perry Hall coach Christy Rawlins said the Gators' chances depended on their ability to be consistent.
Consistency helped the No. 15 Gators run the table in the North region, but missing nine serves in the first game seemed to set the tone for last night's match.
The Gators recovered, however, and began to take control of the match in the second game, making fewer mistakes and pumping up their offense to earn a hard-fought 8-15, 15-8, 15-4, 15-7 victory over Bowie to advance to the state final for the first time in school history.
The Gators will meet No. 6 and defending champion Broadneck in the state final at 5 p.m. Saturday at CCBC-Catonsville.
Last night at CCBC-Essex, the Gators (16-2) gained momentum in each game after struggling through the opener. Senior outside hitter Abbey Petrecca had nine of her 17 kills in the fourth game and finished off the match with a kill.
"It felt so good," Petrecca said. "I told Tracey, before that last point, 'I want the ball. I want to hit it.' And she said, 'I know. I'll give it to you.' I've been with Tracey since we were freshmen and we bonded."
Early on, celebrating match point seemed a long way off as the Bulldogs (12-5) used eight aces and many Perry Hall mistakes to run up the early lead.
"The consistency was not there," said Rawlins, who sent juniors Colleen Mariella and Michelle Welsh into the game to try to settle things down.
"I pulled in a couple of our juniors who are extremely consistent. They came in and they did their jobs extremely well. It was a matter of giving the other young ladies a chance to want to stay in the game."
The Bulldogs took an 8-6 lead in the second game before the Gators began turning the match around. Ijeoma Ekeocha had a kill for the seventh Gators point and then served out the final eight points of the game.
In the third game, the Bulldogs started making mistakes, and the Gators realized that if they could keep the ball in play they could win the match.
"I think it was nerves," said Petrecca, of the Gators' early troubles. "When we realized that we're as good as any other team, we can do this, we can stay with them, it was, 'All right, let's play.' "
Petrecca led a balanced Gators attack that got six kills from Ekeocha and seven from Lauren Amrhine. The trio got cranking late in the match when the Gators figured out how to get around the Bulldogs' blocking, especially 6-foot middle Nakia Williams.
"We had to push the mix, because they had phenomenal blocking," said Rawlins, "and we had to make sure we found their weaknesses. We had to find those open spots."