Hannan beats PJP in four games

Archbishop Hannan’s Lady Hawks recorded their first win of the season on the road Tuesday with a 25-22, 25-15, 23-25, 25-16 victory over Pope John Paul II.

The victory gave Hannan coach Jennifer Pujol her first career win as the Lady Hawks coach.

“It felt great,” Pujol said on getting her initial victory. “We still are having problems with our consistency, but we played well and had intensity. We worked hard. They wanted to be out there, and they wanted to win, so that’s all I can ask for.”

The Lady Jaguars were 0-5 at press time Thursday.

In the first game, Hannan took a 4-2 lead on a kill by Katie Bailey, who finished with 12 kills, four digs and four aces. The game went back and forth, and the Lady Hawks were down 10-9.

Hannan then went on a 9-1 run and grabbed the momentum from the Lady Jaguars. Paige Bourquard’s dink accounted for Pope John Paul’s score during the spurt. She finished with nine kills, four digs and four aces.

PJP was able to run off two in a row following the run, but a kill by Bailey gave the Lady Hawks a 19-13 advantage.

The Lady Jaguars made a run and cut the lead to 22-21, but they came up short in a 25-22 loss.

In the second game PJP took a 6-5 lead, but once again the Lady Hawks went on major run, this one 9-0 to make it 14-6.

Bourquard put down a kill to cap the spurt, but that only silenced Hannan momentarily as the Lady Hawks seemed to be in control throughout and won going away, 25-15.

PJP needed to win the next three games to capture the match, and the third game was the most exciting and featured 10 ties.

Leading 6-5, Emily Hebert added to it with one of her four aces. PJP went up 12-8, but Hannan fought back and tied the game at 12-12 as Bailey’s kill knotted the score.

The Lady Jaguars continued to fight and went ahead 15-13, but in a seesaw game, the Lady Hawks responded by tying the game at 15-15.

It eventually got to 23-23, and PJP ran off two straight points to win, 25-23.

In the fourth game, PJP had a 3-2 lead, but Hannan went on a 13-3 spurt to take a 15-6 advantage. The Lady Hawks went up 4-3 on an ace by Emily Lee, who posted seven aces and six digs. Kimmy Kirsch’s ace put them ahead 9-5, and Bailey’s dink made it 10-5. Kirsch dished out 21 assists for the Lady Hawks to go with three aces.

PJP tried to make the comeback but got no closer than 18-14 in a 25-16 loss.

Bailey said it was a big victory for Hannan.

“It’s very, very exciting,” Bailey said. “It’s going to do good for us because we’ve been working really hard. The first couple losses kind of brought us down, but this is going to bring us together more as a team.”

Pope John Paul II’s Christa Roscigno had 11 digs, while Adriana Cutura tallied nine. Lady Jaguars’ first-year coach Lonna Winslow said her squad played well despite having players competing in either for the first time in varsity or in a different position.

“We were playing with three people on the court that have never played a varsity match. We have Jessica (Gros) and Emily (Hebert). Carmen (Wingerter) is playing a different position,” Winslow said. “They’re not on my normal rotation, but they stepped up, and I think they did a really really good job. I’m proud of how well they did.”