In the end, all it took were three sets to end the Wallkill Volleyball team’s season.

They were close sets, but wins of 25-20, 25-23, 25-19 lifted the Cornwall Dragons to a 3-0 in Sunday’s Section 9 Class A championship match at SUNY New Paltz.

“We really battled hard,” Wallkill coach Julie Michella said. “We really didn’t have our best match. I don’t feel like we got the job done defensively. Our hitters were getting blocked a lot, which is a tribute to Cornwall’s blockers, but we did fight for every point.”

The Panthers came in as the top seed after running the table in the Mid-Hudson Athletic League. Their only two losses were to Section 9 Class AA champion Pine Bush and Class AA runner-up, Monroe-Woodbury.

However, the second-seeded Dragons came in with history on their side as they entered the gym with 14 straight Section 9 championships. Sunday’s win gave them their 15th.

“Because they’ve been here so many times and won it so many times, they walk into the game thinking and knowing they’re going to win,” Michella said. “It’s a battle in our gym to make it that we think and know we can win a big game like this.”
After breaking a 16-16 tie in the first set, a block by Cornwall’s Cara Malone put the Dragons ahead for good.

However, despite falling behind, 22-17, in the second set, the Panthers rallied with Ashlee Gagliardi at the service line to close to within two points, 22-20 after a hitting error by Cornwall’s Eliana Bulusan.

Colleen Romero found a hole in the defense, and then a hitting error by Cornwall tied the set at 23-23.

However, a block by Cornwall’s Taylor Thompson and a kill by Isabella Fabrizio ended the second set, giving Cornwall a 25-23 lead.

“I think this match might have been a different story if we had been able to pull that second set out,” Michella said. “We had momentum. We went on a run and it looked like on that 24th point, we had a few chances to close out that point and would have carried to the 25th, but it didn’t work out in our favor.”
Cornwall got out to an early 5-point lead in the third set, but despite closing to within two points (19-17), the Panthers were never able to close the gap.

“We had our mental ups and downs and it seems we played a little bit nervous,” Michella said. “There were definitely points in the match when I felt like we were building momentum, but we couldn’t capitalize at the end of the set.”

Emma Secor led Wallkill with 39 assists and Colleen Romero had 14 kills and two blocks. Madison Dembroski had 11 kills and Rylee Thomas had four kills and two blocks.

“I wanted to make sure to let them know how special this season was to me,” Michella said. “Win or lose this game, they really were a special group for me. They worked really hard over the year and I’m really sad that I had to see the senior class play their last game.”