B-CC volleyball falls in 3A semifinal

What made the loss doubly disappointing was that it was the second consecutive year the Barons had lost to Huntingtown in the state semifinals. A year ago, B-CC (14-4 record this season) had earned the top seed in the 3A West Region, and dominated its competition before falling to the Hurricanes in three games. This season, the Barons’ early-season loss to Damascus relegated it to the second seed in the regional playoffs, but their late-season surge played dividends, as they did not drop a game in three playoff games leading up to Wednesday. Also working to their advantage was the fact that almost the entirety of their starting lineup had played against Huntingtown (17-1) a year ago. However, they were unable to avoid the same fate.

‘‘We were trying not to think about last year but it was hard not to,” senior setter Wanxin Liu said. ‘‘They beat us pretty badly. This team has come pretty far this season, and we fought hard, but we weren’t able to come back tonight.”

When the Barons look back at this match, they will see that they had some chances to seize control early. In each of the three games, B-CC won the opening point, and in the first and second games, Huntingtown, which had made the semifinals with almost an entirely new starting lineup, and a new coach in Shari Turner, seemed to be the ones that were tight. But, rather than use their height at the middle of the net — junior Rosie Eck is 6-feet tall as is sophomore Maddy Carretero — the Barons played tentatively, hitting passes slightly off line, taking them out of their offense. Rather than press the tempo, the match switched to a defensive battle, favoring the Hurricanes. In one sequence, Eck put down a block, but rather than seeing it hit the floor, she was stunned to see Huntingtown scramble to knock the ball back over the net. So were the rest of her teammates, as the ball landed in the middle of the floor.

‘‘Both teams lobbied early, and it wasn’t until mid-game each game that one team pulled away,” Turner said. ‘‘Fortunately, that happened to be us. It was not an offensive battle like we had anticipated from the reports that we had seen, but that was a nice surprise for us. Playing defensively is more our style.”

Given the opportunity, the Hurricanes found their offense. Maresca led all players with 12 kills, and her classmate, Craft, followed through with seven. Adding to the bad news for B-CC, Eck sprained her ankle near the end of the second game and was lost for the remainder of the match. The lineup changes did not favor B-CC.

‘‘We tried to recover,” Clise said. ‘‘We lost a setter and we had people playing all the way around that weren’t used to it, but they hung in there for a while. Then, they deflated, which is understandable.”

Despite the loss, the Barons have much to look forward to. They lose just two seniors, Liu and libero Priscilla Aguilar, and setter Lee Geiser, who led the team with more than three assists per game, will return for her senior season. The same can be said for leading hitters Eck and Carreterro, who often were the heart of the team.

‘‘We fed off each other this year,” Liu said. ‘‘We supported each other. When I was down, I fed off the juniors. They have energy, and they were our motivation.”