By SPENCER BATES
PORTVILLE — The reigning New York State girls volleyball Champions have officially opened their season at home, doing so in convincing fashion as they remained undefeated on the year.
Portville, winners of the last four consecutive New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) girls volleyball championships, are officially under new leadership after former coach Kelly Unverdorben left the program to take the head coaching position at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford. However, the legacy and foundation that she built at her alma mater remains strong as ever, embodied by the Panthers’ 5-0 start to the campaign, their most recent win, a 25-7, 25-17, 25-8 sweep over Dunkirk.
Now at the helm for Portville is Paul Mann, who admitted that it is one of the best situations he could have possibly walked into. But he also noted that taking over for a legendary coach such as Unverdorben comes with its pressures.
“It couldn’t have gone any better,” Mann said. “I feel like sometimes I’m more nervous than them. I’m in, arguably, one of the best pairs of shoes that I could be in. With Kelly, they won nine state titles here. … But it is unnerving. It’s hard to follow someone as great as she has been. So I told my girls, ‘I want to make sure I just do enough to make sure I don’t make any mistakes that cause them a loss or cause us not to be in a position that we’re in.’”
Fortunately enough for him, his squad made very few mistakes as they dismantled the Marauders. In the first set, the Panthers were red-hot, leaving no doubt and establishing themselves as the team in control.
When it came to the second set, things evened out for a while. Dunkirk found itself racking up the most points it would have of any set on the night and pushed Portville to win the set late. But much to the satisfaction of Mann, while his team may have taken a few hits, it never wavered, eventually going on a run to close out the set.
“I have to give a little bit of credit to Dunkirk,” Mann said. “We have that tendency to play really lights-out that first set, and then plateau a little bit and go into cruise mode, which is what I said to them in a timeout. But their composure was good. And again, give credit to Dunkirk. They stepped up, they were ready to play. We made some mistakes, I think we had 13 unforced errors, which kept them closer than what they probably should have been. But again, our composure (was good), I wasn’t worried at any point, but it could have got much closer. Those are the types of games that you can lose.”
The Panthers got back on track after the second set, dismissing the Marauders after claiming the third and final set with just as much conviction as it did the first.
It was another convincing win for Portville, and Mann heaped praise onto his captains Ali Haynes, Mia Rhinehart, who recently became the program’s all-time leader in aces and digs, and Adelyn Walker, who he acknowledged have been pivotal in the wake of Unverdorben’s departure.
“To be honest with you, I can’t do it without either one of them,” Mann said. “I need all three of them to do exactly what they do every night for us to be that successful.”
Portville’s Gaitley Maiolo (13) rises up for a kill against Dunkirk. Maiolo had seven kills and a block in the Panthers’ win. (Spencer Bates)
Haynes finished the match with 11 kills, seven aces and eight digs, Rhinehart had nine digs, four aces and two assists, and Walker recorded 26 assists, two kills and two aces in the win.
Alongside the trio of captains, Gaitley Maiolo tallied seven kills and a block, Leigha Stives had seven kills and eight aces, and Marissa Carls had three kills, four aces, two digs and a block.
If one thing is clear in the wake of the Panthers’ fifth consecutive win in the post-Unverdorben era, it is that her legacy is still woven into the fabric of the program. According to Mann, he and his team are simply doing whatever they can to maintain the standard of success and effort that was laid before him. Because, it is proven: the Unverdorben formula is a winning one.
“I’m just trying to respect her legacy that she put in place,” Mann said. “I probably lean on (our players) as much as they lean on me at this point, because, of the veterans, I got seven or eight state titlists out there. Without what they do … we can’t be as successful as we want. And again, all kudos to Kelly. She put such a good program in place. I’m just trying to follow the formula she gave me so we can continue to win.”
Up next for Portville is a home matchup against Jamestown, set for Sept. 17 at 7:30 p.m.
