 "Andy Conroy")
 "Jillian Hathaway")
 "Katie Duggan")
When the match was lost, and season over, the cheers continued for the Mount Alvernia girls volleyball team.
The Mustang rooting contingent - four dozen strong that sounded more like 400 singing and shrieking girls' voices echoing off all corners of the Nashoba Regional High School gymnasium - urged on Mount Alvernia with vigor throughout last night's Division 3 state semifinal against Norte Dame Academy of Tyngsboro.
In the aftermath of a 25-13, 25-21, 15-25, 25-11 defeat, the cheers continued as a salute to the squad and all it accomplished in bringing a second sectional volleyball title banner in five seasons to the school.
``Getting to this point has been a great pleasure,'' said Mount Alvernia third-year coach Robert Guen. ``It's been really exciting. I am very proud of the girls - especially the ones I had for three years. To see them go from what they were in 10th grade to what they are now, they definitely deserve that second sectional championship banner.''
Their hopes of a second shot at a state title banner since 2005 were dashed last night against a NDA squad that played its best match of the three-game season series between the squads. Some of the Mustangs' frustration throughout the night stemmed out of not being able to quite say the same about themselves.
``I think we could have played a lot better,'' sighed senior quad-captain Jillian Hathaway, who squad split a pair of five-set matches with NDA in the regular season. ``We had beaten them before and definitely could have done it again. I don't know what we did wrong.''
A lot of it had to do with what the Lancers (15-11) did right. After fighting to make the tournament out of the powerful Division 1-packed Merrimack Valley Conference, the Lancers arrived in the playoffs healthier than they were in the early season meeting the Mustangs won 3-2.
Last night, even though Mount Alvernia (19-6) led in each of the first three sets, the Lancers delivered the extended service and hitting runs at most of the key times, while the Mustangs struggled with service errors and on serve receive.
``The passing was off,'' Hathaway determined. ``That was probably the main problem, along with missed serves. If you can't get a pass, you can't get a good hit. So we couldn't get any points.''
``In volleyball, you have your good days and your bad days,'' Guen said. ``Unfortunately today, we didn't have a good day. I am proud of the way the girls fought - they didn't give up when things weren't going well - but the control wasn't there and they weren't connecting as well as they have in the past.''
The match seemed to turn in the second set when the Mustangs held a 21-16 lead and the Lancers called timeout. NDA got serve back on the first point out of the break and then ran off eight more in a row for a commanding 2-0 lead in the match.
``I think if we had pulled that one out it would have been a different outcome for the night,'' Guen said.
Still, the Mustangs bounced back from the momentum shift with a very strong third set. Consecutive block kills from senior Katie Duggan and junior Annaliese Gartner had Mount Alvernia up 8-6, a Hathaway kill made it 9-7 and senior Brianna Marin drilled five straight service points for a 14-7 lead. It was still a seven-point gap at 20-13 when senior Caitlin Flanagan served four straight points to get to set point.
After the Lancers got two back, Duggan ended it with one of her five block kills (19 kills total) on the night.
``We all knew we had won before against them so we knew we could come back and win,'' Hathaway said. ``We just tried to keep it going.''
The Lancers jumped out to a 6-2 lead in the fourth set, but it wasn't doing much to quiet the Mustang fans.
``When we're down, they keep screaming and everything,'' Hathaway said. ``It's really helpful.''
But while the Mustangs got back within two points twice, at 8-6 and 9-7, on a pair of Hathaway kills, the Lancers pulled away with runs of five and nine points for a 23-8 lead.
``In the third set, we played well, but I also think they had a little bit of a letdown as well,'' Guen said. ``Then the fourth game they put it out of reach.
``You can't really get mad about it. They played hard. The intensity was there. It just didn't happen tonight.''
Regardless of how it ended, a lot of good things did happen for the nine Mustangs seniors - Alex Eustice, Andy Conroy, Eva Haschak, Melissa Allen, Lisa Carr, Flanagan, Marin, Hathaway and Duggan - during their outstanding final run together.
``It was so exciting,'' Hathaway said. ``The school was very excited for us too.''
(Scott Souza is a Daily News staff writer. He can be reached at 781-398-8006 or ssouza@cnc.com.)
