Redemption Song

Lady Panthers make good on early-season plans, win D-III state championship

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The Johnston girls’ volleyball team didn’t just think they could win the Division III state championship this season. The Panthers knew they would win it.

On Sunday, they proved to the rest of the state that they were right.

Johnston out-lasted Portsmouth 3-2 in the D-III title match at URI’s Keaney Gymnasium, as it won the first two sets, lost the next two, and then won the title with a terrific, 15-4 game five showing. The championship was Johnston’s second-ever and first in a decade.

It was the final validation for a team that had been upset as the No. 1 seed each of the last two years, including last season when it had six match points in the fifth game of the championship match and couldn’t close out the win against Central.

There was no repeat this time around. Johnston knew it would win from day one, and it made good on that feeling.

“They knew,” said Johnston head coach Greta Lalli. We all knew right from the bat. They deserved it last year, but they had a fire in them this year. I said it right at the beginning.”

Lalli isn’t exaggerating on her timing. The day before practice began this season, before the players had ever even taken the court for the first time, she sent a text message to senior captains Dana Desmarais and Francesca Gaudiana.

“Hi girls. This time next year you will all be going off to college STATE CHAMPIONS!!! The process starts tomorrow and DOES NOT stop until the ride home from URI in November. If that sounds good let’s make it happen!! Your job (is) to pump these girls up EVERY DAY!! If anyone can do this – it’s you!! Can’t wait!!”

Johnston proceeded to go 16-0 in the regular season, losing just one game within a match the entire way, before sweeping a quarterfinal match and gutting out a tough, 3-1 victory over Middletown in the semifinals.

On the eve of the finals against Portsmouth, Lalli re-sent that text to Gaudiana and Desmarais, and added “We are almost there! Let’s finish this season off the way champions do.”

The next day, the Panthers became champions.

“It’s amazing,” Gaudiana said. “It’s great. It’s a goal that we set since last year when we were here. And we came back.”

It truly was a culmination, as Johnston had a mediocre season in Division II when this year’s seniors were freshmen. The following year, after dropping to D-III, the Panthers went 14-2 and were the No. 1 seed, only to lose to eventual-champion Mt. Pleasant in the semifinals.

Last year, Johnston went 15-1 and again earned the top seed before the devastating loss to Central in the finals.

This season, the building continued with the undefeated season and, of course, the state title.

“When I first came into the high school my goal was to make it to states and win it,” Desmarais said. “We made it last year. This year, we came back with a victory.”

Gaudiana and Desmarais are two of six seniors on the roster, most of which have been contributors for the better part of at least three seasons. The other seniors are Angela Gallucci, Alexa Tavares, Katherine Rocha and Casey Howe.

Next year may present a rebuilding year. But this year’s group finally got it done.

“We’ve just worked so hard,” Tavares said.

Johnston looked like it might cruise to a sweep – something it did in 16 of its 18 matches coming in to the title match – when it won the first two games 25-11 and 25-22.

Game one was completely dominant, with Johnston never trailing.

The second game was tighter, as Portsmouth led 17-15 and the score was tied a little later at 21 apiece. But the Panthers pulled that one out as well, putting them one game from the championship.

It didn’t come easy.

Portsmouth won game three 25-22, as it led by as much as 18-10 and fought off a late Johnston comeback. In game four, the score was tied at 14 until the Patriots rattled off seven straight points and never lost the lead, winning 25-21.

Suddenly, the Panthers were in a fifth game for the first time all season. It was also hard not to think about last season, when Johnston let the title slip away.

“(I told them to) think about us in practice,” Lalli said. “I tried to bring them back to a calmer time, and I saw a noticeable difference.”

Whatever exactly was said, it worked. The Panthers never trailed, as they opened up a 3-0 lead on three Portsmouth errors.

The Patriots tied the score at three, but Johnston scored three more points, one of which came on a Gaudiana hit and another on a kill by Kristina DiMascio.

That set off a run in which the Panthers won nine straight points, eight of which happened with Gaudiana on the service line.

“She’s the most determined of the girls,” Lalli said of Gaudiana. “They all have their strengths and that’s what makes it a beautiful team. One has more energy, one has better hits, one has better digs, and they just all come together.”

It was the most important stretch of Johnston’s season.

“I remember that feeling from last year,” Gaudiana said. “I didn’t want to feel it again.”

By the time Gaudiana was done serving, the Panthers were up 12-4. A service error by Portsmouth made it 13-4, and consecutive serves from Tavares never came back over the net, clinching the match.

After three long seasons, and a long, grueling final match, the Johnston Panthers were finally champions.

“All season I didn’t think about it,” Lalli said of last season. “I didn’t talk about it, I didn’t think about it. These girls are 1000 times different from those girls that I had. Those girls were amazing, but these girls had a fire in them. It fueled them.”

The Panthers were exactly where they knew they would be.

“We wanted this so bad,” Desmarais said. “We couldn’t let it get away from us.”

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