After A 5-Year Drought Porter-Gaud Volleyball Wins SCISA AAAA Volleyball Title Over Cardinal Newman At Lexington High
“It’s been a while, but it just feels really special to take a new group of kids and have them experience this,” Port-Gaud head coach Megan Crouch said.
By Thomas Grant Jr.
Special Contributor
COLUMBIA – Helping to end Porter-Gaud’s 5-year title drought in SCISA volleyball was not junior OH Malaya Singletary’s only proud accomplishment on Tuesday (Oct. 27) at Lexington High School where her play helped the Cyclones defeat Cardinal Newman to capture the SCISA AAAA state championship.
She became the latest family member to win a state title with the Lady Cyclones following their 3-set win over Cardinal Newman, who were the defending champions. Older sister Marianna Singletary led the 2021 Class AAA team before heading on to Texas and now UCLA.
“I’m really happy to continue that streak and that legacy,” said Malaya, whose father Harold proudly cheered her on while holding a small poster. “I’m honored to carry that with me and start again for the rest of and future with PGVB.”
The victory was déjà vu for Porter-Gaud head coach Megan Crouch. This was her eighth state title at the school and first since she coached Marianna five years ago.
“It’s been a while, but it just feels really special to take a new group of kids and have them experience this,” she said.
Porter-Gaud won the first set 25-14. The first and last points were service aces where the ball lined off the top of the net, and the Lady Cardinals were unable to make a clean return.
Along with the serving and consistent kills by Singletary and Pope Cooper and the Lady Cyclones got strong net play from freshman Charlotte Johnston. On a couple of points, she made a leaping return as her back was turned to the net.
Another fast start enabled Porter-Gaud to win set number two, 25-17. The third set saw Cardinal Newman turn the tables by jumping out to a 7-0 advantage.
The Lady Cyclones fought back and back-to-back points off blocks by Singletary and Cooper gave them a 10-9 lead.
Porter-Gaud closed in for the victory, but the resilient Lady Cardinals managed to close the gap and stave off two match points.
On match point, Porter-Gaud made a return past Cardinal Newman for the 25-22 title-clinching third set victory.
“We came into the huddle, and we were like ‘This is not our game,” Singletary said. “This is not how we want to finish. This is not how we want to go out and we switched our mentality and we knew that if we fought hard enough, if we dug ourselves out of that hole, we would come out on top and in three sets.”
“We went down 7-0 and for us to have the confidence in each other and just to chip away one point at a time,” Crouch said. “Kudos to Cardinal Newman. A great team, super athletic, and just proud of my girls for believing it.”
Coming into the game P-G stats leaders in key areas included: Singletary-OH- had 450 kills, 61 aces, 293 digs, & 29 Blocks. Junior setter Harriett Matenaer had an incredible 869 assists and 322 digs while Cooper, a freshman middle hitter, had 122 kills and 44 blocks. Soph OH Eliza Coker contributed 334 kills along with 207 digs and senior Libero Kylie Pure came in the finals with 210 digs and 46 blocks.
Junior P-G MB/OH Gianna Malgradi contributed 109 kills, and 26 blocks and junior Laney Bargainer contributed 210 digs.
With Pure the only senior on the team Porter-Gaud might be on a run of championships starting next season. They will have ten starters back for next season.
It was the second win this season over the Lady Cardinals by Porter-Gaud (32-15). It went undefeated in SCISA play with wins over public schools Lucy Beckhamand Bishop England.
Cardinal Newman finished the season with a 22-11 record under first year head coach Aisha Taylor. Despite the loss, she praised her young team that graduated seven seniors for surpassing any expectations.
“I told them earlier today, you could ask me to lie if I thought we would be here, I’d probably would have said no,” she said. “So, I told them I was so proud of them at the fact that they actually made it here and competed well. I was so proud of them.”
Cardinal Newman was a very young team this season comprised of two 8th graders, four freshmen, and four juniors with no sophomores or seniors on the team.
Some of their stats leaders coming into the state finals included: junior OH/OPP Zailey Vaval with 360 Kills and 17 blocks while junior setter/RS Lauren Rivers had 163 kills and 59 assists. Freshman RS/OH Anna Oliver had 141 kills while 8th grade Libero/DS Caroline Grimes had 333 digs and 51 assists.
Junior OH Leah Taylor had a team leading 388 digs and freshman setter Sid McDonnell had a fine season with 217 digs.
Porter- Gaud finished the season with a 32-10 record while Cardinal Newman finished 22-11.
