One of the most important traits of a championship caliber team is the ability to shake off adversity and bounce back from a loss. A perfect 16-0 regular season for the girls' volleyball team meant their first true taste of adversity came in the Lancaster-Lebanon League Championship match where the Lady Bears suffered their first loss of the season, falling 3-2 to Hempfield. Elizabethtown had just one day to regroup for their District 3-4A opening round affair opposite Mechanicsburg on the 28th and the Lady Bears passed the test with flying colors.

E-town rolled the Lady Wildcats, winning 3-0 behind 14 kills from Kallee Locker, 21 assists from Angela Costa-Ouimet and 15 digs from Sydney Stewart. Locker added two blocks and Stewart six aces to lead E-town to wins of 25-13, 25-20 and 25-14.

Elizabethtown's second round match in their district draw brought a familiar foe in the Ephrata Mountaineers to town and the Lady Bears promptly dispatched the visitors 3-1. The victory assured the Lady Bears a top four finish in the district championship and locked up the team's first PIAA berth.

"We set a goal at the beginning of the season to make states," said interim head coach Karen Eberly. "We accomplished that goal last night! The players have totally bought in and are playing together as a team. We rely heavily on our captains, but every girl has stepped up and fulfilled their role on the team."

Locker and Stewart paced the offense with 12 kills apiece while Costa-Ouimet dished out 16 assists. Stewart served up another six aces while Locker added four blocks. Paige Horst added 11 digs during the 25-15, 25-23, 11-25, 25-17 win.

The Lady Bears did suffer their first setback of the 2021 season on October 27th with that L-L finals loss to Hempfield, making it five straight L-L titles for the Lady Black Knights. The Lady Bears put themselves in a hole, dropping the opening two sets by a pair of 25-14 finals but were able to stave off the loss by posting their own 25-14 win before adding a 25-23 win to even the match at two sets apiece. Hempfield rallied to take the decisive fifth set, 15-8, to secure the L-L title.

"We had a rough start with losing the first two sets," said Eberly. "We made some adjustments, started serving tougher and were able to win the next two sets. Unfortunately, we could not pull off the 5th set. But at least taking them to 5 sets put us in the right frame of mind to come out and play hard and with confidence for the first round of districts."

Costa-Ouimet finished with 24 assists and four aces while Stewart added 18 digs with Liz Kerin adding 18 kills to her five blocks.

CROSS COUNTRY

Saturday October 30th sent the E-town girls cross county team as well as Dalton Fink, Nathan Johnson and Jaycen Conrad to Newville and Big Spring High School for the 2021 District 3-3A Championship. The Lady Bears posted a 19th place team finish in the 25 full team field. Jordan DiRisio led the way, taking 63rd with a time of 21:06.1. Ali Fink crossed a few seconds later and in 66th place while Jillian Wivell and Sierra Kapcsos finished a mere second apart in 132nd and 133rd place, respectively. Julia McAlonis rounded out the scoring five for E-town, taking 156th place with a time of 22:42.3. Lilah Drager (157th - 22:42.4) and Kendall Hein (193rd - 23:40.1) finished the Lady Bear contingent in Newville.

Dalton Fink led the trio of Bears, taking 135th in the boy's race with a time of 18:28.5. Johnson managed to crack the top 200 with his 195th place run while Conrad closed things out for Elizabethtown with a 216th place finish.

FOOTBALL

There are few better ways to end a season then with a win as the Bears can attest thanks to their 32-14 triumph over Solanco on October 29th. The win puts E-town at 4-6 overall and 1-4 in Section Two action.

Elizabethtown used a 20-point outburst in the second quarter to turn a tight 7-6 deficit into a comfy 26-6 halftime cushion. Braden Cummings opened the scoring by hauling in a 31-yard TD pass from Josh Rudy, but the Golden Mules answered right back with a score of their own with Elijah Cunningham catching the Bradley Weder pass.

Rudy picked up the second of his three touchdown passes early in the second, moving E-town back in front, 12-7, after the failed two-point try. Patrick Gilhool was on the receiving end of that 39-yard strike. Brady Breault handled the rest of the second quarter scoring starting with 42-yard fumble return for a score. The junior wideout also recorded in his lone catch of the game, a 12-yard score that made it 26-7 at the break. Rudy capped the E-town scoring with a 27-yard jaunt in the third that made it 32-7 while Robert Castagna picked up the game's final score for Solanco, from six yards out, setting the 32-14 final.

Rudy finished with just 99 yards through the air, but three TD passes combined with 67-yards and a score on the ground was enough to lead Elizabethtown to victory. Gilhool, Cummings and Breault split the touchdown catches evenly but Gilhool managed the bulk of the yards, accounting for 76 on three catches. Cade Capello led the ground game with 62 yards on 16 carries.