A.C. Flora’s Kim Roach Long after the A.C. Flora huddle broke up and players drifted off to chat with friends and family following a 3–2 victory at Dreher, Falcons’ volleyball coach Patty McDonnell rummaged through her travel bag and came out with two hands filled with cell phones.

A few words brought players scurrying back to claim them.

For McDonnell, the no cell phone policy, is purely defensive – a measure designed to help the team focus.

“It’s been a problem all season,” senior Nora Kawaguchi said of that focus. “We’ll start off strong and fall back, and then the fifth game comes around, and we just get it back. I think tonight, after we won the first two games, we got a little too confident and relaxed. We need to stay focused.”

Against Dreher, the Falcons held their positions, passed smartly, and set up points effectively while taking 25–18 and 25–21 decisions.

A.C. Flora’s Nora Kawaguchi The Blue Devils, meanwhile, were less effective to start their senior night.

“It takes us a while to get cranked up,” Dreher coach Pam DeLoach said.

But with four seniors seeing action, the Blue Devils steadily improved in the very areas the Falcons had started so strongly. The results were 25–12 and 25–20 victories in which the Blue Devils never trailed and led by 10 midway through each game.

“These seniors (Tequila McNeal, Kelby Killoy, Courtney Grant, and Ashley Hamlin) have been wonderful leaders and contributors,” DeLoach said. “I can’t remember when I’ve had a better set of seniors.”

When the teams faced each other earlier this season, Dreher emerged with a 15–13 victory in the fifth game to win the match. This time, the outcome was reversed primarily because A.C. Flora had the good fortune to rotate with the game tied at 10 into its best on– court alignment: Kawa-guchi serving and Erin Gehringer and Kim Roach on the front line with Roach in the middle. Kawaguchi served out the match, and Roach contributed two key kills for the 12th and 13th points.

“I just wanted to get it done and go home,” Roach said with a tired smile. “Of course, I also wanted to beat Dreher, our rivals. It just seems if we play good the first game, we get complacent, and the other team gets pumped up because they lost. And we don’t get better to match them. It just turns out that we play better when there’s pressure on us.”

Both teams faced pressure in their regular–season finales on Tuesday, needing victories to assure playoff berths. The Falcons beat Chester in another five– game marathon match and will most likely be a third seed in their portion of the Class 3A playoff bracket. The Blue Devils lost and will not advance to the playoffs.