Genevieve Pollock could only jump up and down and scream in excitement as she accepted the Section 9 Class volleyball championship plaque on behalf of the Wallkill Panthers.

Finally, after several unsuccessful trips to the championship game, the Panthers clinched their first sectional title with a 3-0 win on Friday over the third-seeded New Paltz Huguenots at Wallkill High School.

“It’s pretty amazing,” Pollock said. “It’s like something I can’t even explain. I’ve been working for it for four years, and it’s just incredible to me.”

Finally was the word of the night for many of the Panthers, who had constantly found defeat in the Section 9 championship game. But this time, with their longtime nemesis, the Cornwall Dragons, moved up to the new Class AA, the Panthers had their moment to shine.

“It’s such a crazy feeling,” senior captain Araceli Ospina said. “We’ve been chasing this for years, and now to finally have it in our hands is nice.”

What could be better than winning your first Section 9 championship?

The Panthers did it on their own home court as the Section 9 volleyball committee awarded the Class AA and Class A championship games to Wallkill Senior High School.

“It’s special,” Pollock said. “Who does this? Who wins the section finals in their hometown?”

The Panthers knew the road to the championship would go through their home gym when the brackets were released. There it was: as clear as day: championship site: Wallkill.

“It was one of those things,” Ospina said. “Honestly, I didn’t feel like it mattered where it was because we had that familiarity with being in sections. So, we weren’t as nervous.”

It was the third meeting of the season between the Panthers and the Huguenots. Wallkill won the regular season contest, 3-2, on October 3. The teams met again on October 25 in the Mid Hudson Athletic league semifinals. The Panthers won that match as well.

During this meeting, the closest set was the first, and after the Panthers built a 12-4 lead with Pollock at the service line, the Huguenots rallied to tie the set at 14-14, and even briefly took a two-point lead.

“This is a small gym and a very large crowd, and everyone was settling in and getting used to the chatting back and forth,” Pollock said. “It’s an exciting environment to play in.”

The Panthers went on to win the first set, 25-21, and then broke away from the Huguenots in the second set with a long service run by Ashlyn Thomas, who took the line with the Panthers leading by three points.

They had a 10-point lead when she left the line.

“We were able to start getting in our groove in the second set, get our offense going, get a little better with our serve-receive passing, and then in the third set, everything started to click.”

The Panthers ran into trouble in the third set during Wednesday’s semifinal against the Marlboro Dukes. The Panthers took a 2-0 lead, but the Dukes staved off match point three times to win the third set, before the Panthers took the fourth.

“After the second set, we talked about how we didn’t want to go into a fourth or fifth set,” Coach Julie Michella said. “We’re going to do it now, and we have to come out even stronger in the third set than we did in the first two.”

A hitting error by the Huguenots broke a 9-9 tie in the third set, and the Panthers got some breathing room, building a six-point lead. Eventually an ace by Thomas sent the Panthers into a frenzy as they celebrated the program’s first championship.

They advanced to Tuesday’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association subregional against the winner of Saturday’s Section 1 championship game between John Jay-Cross River and Byram Hills, again at Wallkill High School.

“We made history tonight,” Ospina said. “I don’t think we’re going to live that down any time soon. That’s such a big accomplishment for all of us. We put in the work since preseason, and we deserve it.”