Cardinal Gibbons defeats JH Rose in 4A East volleyball final, heads to title match

Cardinal Gibbons volleyball was greeted by loud “Welcome to 4A” chants at Greenville Rose on Tuesday night.

When the fifth-seeded Crusaders fell behind after the first set, the cries only grew louder.

Cardinal Gibbons, which won the 2014 3A volleyball championship, has been playing its first season in the higher 4A classification. Winning its first 4A conference championship wasn’t enough.

Neither was knocking off the East’s top seed and previous undefeated Broughton just one match before.

Gibbons, as coach Logan Barber put it, wasn’t done yet.

The Crusaders quieted the Rampants with a 3-1 (25-27, 25-20, 25-23, 25-21) victory, claiming the N.C. High School Athletic Association 4A East Regional championship and becoming the area’s final 4A program standing.

Cardinal Gibbons (19-3) will play West champion Greensboro Northwest Guildford (27-3) for the state title Saturday at the Raleigh Convention Center. Northwest Guildford fell in the third round a season ago.

“I know there are definitely people that didn’t want us to win and wanted to prove us wrong, that we couldn’t do it,” Gibbons senior Briley Brind’Amour said. “I think we just believed in ourselves going into 4A.”

Brind’Amour led the match with 23 kills. Her teammate, senior Emma Longley, contributed 22 and senior Sarah Nacouzi added 13. Senior setter Tori Dozier led the regional final with 47 assists, while senior libero Mia Fradenburg had a team-high 13 digs.

Fradenburg bumped the final assist to Brind’Amour to claim the match, and throughout the night, Longley helped swing her team out of jams against the defending 4A champion.

“I think when it came together, it just kind of flowed,” Longley said of the Crusaders overcoming a one-set deficit.

The 36-minute first set came down the wire, as Rampants junior Caroline Kuhn forced a 24-24 tie. The Crusaders (19-3) never trailed in the second set, reeling off relentless attacks and trying to cover Kuhn. The Crusaders adjusted their blocks to the 6-foot-2 middle hitter from Rose (23-2).

“They knew coming into the season going into 4A wasn’t going to be easy,” Barber said. “They had a lot of history to rely on, but they were doing something very different against very different teams.”

Gibbons has won 15 total NCHSAA state championships, owning the last six in 3A.

This story was originally published November 3, 2015 at 8:59 PM with the headline "Cardinal Gibbons defeats JH Rose in 4A East volleyball final, heads to title match."