The Broadneck volleyball team repeated as Class 4A state champion last night - in dominating fashion.
The No. 6 Bruins surged to an 8-0 lead in the first game and never trailed in sweeping past No. 15 Perry Hall, 15-3, 15-7, 15-4, in the state final at CCBC-Catonsville.
Broadneck joined Severna Park as the only Anne Arundel County schools to repeat as state volleyball champions. Severna Park won three in a row from 1991 to 1993.
The state title was the third this fall for the Cape St. Claire school. The Bruins also won in field hockey and cross country.
"I couldn't ask for a better group of girls," said Broadneck coach Romonzo Beans of his six seniors. "They're top-notch girls and I hate to see them go. I'm going to miss them. It's going to hurt, but I've got a lot of girls who want to come back here and do it again."
Strong hitting from the likes of 6-foot-2 Cristen Van Dyke and Erin Lukasiewicz, both seniors, and juniors Christina Green and Dana Mullenhard, and superb defense led the Bruins (16-3) to their third 3-0 sweep in five playoff victories, including Gaithersburg, the No. 1-ranked team by The Washington Post, in the semifinals.
Broadneck won its other two postseason matches by 3-1.
"Our coach did not let us watch who we were going to play tonight, and didn't let us know at all we were going to win," Van Dyke said. "And we came out here thinking we were going to be challenged and kept our intensity up and played our game."
Van Dyke did not play in last year's final for personal reasons. So last night was special.
"I was so depressed I couldn't be here last year and was angry at myself," she said. "I felt bad for my team and felt I let them down. This year, I worked hard to be here."
Van Dyke had seven blocks and six kills, Lukasiewicz had four kills, Green five blocks and two kills and Mullenhard seven blocks and three kills. Senior setter Hallie Fuller had 14 assists.
"I expected them to be very strong in the front row and I knew they had a whole lot of offensive weapons," said Perry Hall's third-year coach, Christy Rawlins, whose team (16-3) lost only to ranked teams - No. 1 Towson and then No. 10 Owings Mills. Perry Hall was making its first appearance in the state final.
"They're a very good serving team and their defense is phenomenal," she said. "What I thought would be open, we tried to put it there and, oops, there's a body. I think they're the best team we played this season."
Broadneck had a 14-1 lead in the first game before Perry Hall had two points. Melissa Golob's tap into an open space ended it at 15-3.
The Bruins built a 9-1 lead in the second game on Perry Hall errors, but the Gators proceeded to score five straight points on the hitting of senior Abbey Petrecca to make it 9-6.
Beans called time and the Bruins came back out and retrieved the five points as Van Dyke and Lukasiewicz asserted themselves around the net. Petrecca's point made it 14-7, but a tip over the net by Van Dyke ended it.
"We exceeded our expectations by far and we definitely didn't expect to get this far," Petrecca said.
"They have a very good team offensively and defensively. It was kind of frustrating."
After a 1-1 tie in the third game, the Bruins built a 14-2 lead and closed it out.
"It was a little tougher to get here this year because of the competition in our region against Arundel [which beat the Bruins in the regular season] this year," Mullenhard said.
Other Gators who played well in defeat were Lauren Amrhine, Tracey Murphy and Megan Sipes.