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Garden Spot's girls' volleyball-playing Spartans are getting quite good at this coming-from-behind thing.
For the second straight night, the Spartans saw a defeat in front of them and refused to succumb to it.
Wednesday night at Manheim Township High School, Spot trailed Penn Manor two games to none in the best-of-five Lancaster-Lebanon League championship game. In the third game, the Comets took a 24-21 lead, needing one point to win the game and match.
It was over.
Then again, it wasn't.
Garden Spot scored six of the next seven points to take Game Three, canceling the foregone conclusion. Riding the shifting momentum, the Spartans won Game Four then took the deciding Game Five to claim their first L-L League title.
"Giving up isn't our mentality," Garden Spot senior outside hitter Rachel Wenger said. "We just keep pushing."
Tuesday night, the Spartans trailed Hempfield two games to one before coming back to win a semifinal match in five. It was the first time in school history the Spartans had beaten the Black Knights in a non-tournament match.Wednesday, Spot (13-0 league) stepped closer to the edge of defeat before ramming the match into reverse and changing its course to come away with the 11-25, 19-25, 27-25, 25-18, 15-13 victory.
"They just refuse to lose," Garden Spot coach Denny Werner said about his team. "It was the same way in districts and states last season. They're tough."
That toughness, however, nearly showed up too late. Penn Manor sprinted to a 12-3 lead in the first game and a 17-8 lead in the second, and went on to win both games.
The Comets (12-2) were getting strong serves and positive swings in the middle and outside.
"The first two games, everything was right on," Penn Manor coach Jarod Staub said. "I couldn't ask for anything more."
The third game was close throughout. But Manor's Terri Beam put up a block, the Spartans failed on a hit attempt and Manor's Truely Kibler (17 kills) found the floor with a kill for a 24-21 lead.
But Wenger's spike kept Spot alive and when Manor was off on a pair of swings, the score was tied at 24-24. Kibler gave the Comets a one-point lead but Manor followed with a hitting error and a net foul and Spot had the one-point lead.
Garden Spot libero Amber High then came up with a dig and Wenger put away the pass to win the game and keep the Spartans in the match.
(1593) (666) (483) (416) (153) (25) (19) (18) (15) (11) (8) (6) (6) (6) (4)"I came out slow in the first two games," said Wenger, who had 13 kills. "I know I should have been ready to go but Penn Manor was playing well. We just had to get our game going."
Garden Spot never trailed in the fourth game, stretching an 18-16 lead to 24-16 before winning it, 25-18. The Spartans' defense improved markedly, keyed by the play of High, who finished with 28 digs.
"We made too many errors in the first two games," High said. "So, we picked it up and kept balls in play."
In the fifth game, Garden Spot ran out to a 6-1 lead only to have the Comets come back and tie the game at 8-8. Manor registered the tying point on an Emily Raush (43 assists) swing that followed the longest rally of the match.
The Comets appeared to have reversed the momentum.
But Spot came out of a timeout with four straight points, three coming on kills by Tracy Musser (11 kills, four blocks) and Claire Depew and an Ashley Schnader (team-high 17 kills) block.
Manor battled back , scoring five of the next six points to tie the game at 13-13 on Elly Raush's swing (11 kills). But a Schnader kill and a Wenger kill, which followed a High dig, followed and the shocking comeback was complete.
"We were resilient and found a way to make a play when we needed to stop their momentum," Werner said.
Musser summed up the comeback win this way:
"We stuck together and pushed hard to the very last point," the senior middle hitter said. "It takes a lot of teamwork and we had that (tonight)."
The Spartans might not have had much teamwork early. But they found it just in the nick of time.
Note: Along with the L-L title, the Spartans landed the L-L's top seed in the District Three Class AAA playoffs. They open districts in pool play at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at Hempfield. Penn Manor opens districts in pool play at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at Gettysburg.
E-mail: kfreeman@lnpnews.com
