Photo Courtesy of Blessed Trinity High School

MARIETTA—In her inaugural season at Blessed Trinity High School, Roswell, Allison Boes was not only named Region 7 AAAA Coach of Year, but she guided the school’s volleyball team to the state finals, where they defeated last year’s champions, St. Pius X High School, Atlanta. During the Nov. 2 match at Marietta High School, Blessed Trinity was a 3-1 set victor over a St. Pius X team that had only dropped four of its 49 matches prior to the state finals.

The whole match was a tug-of-war contest between two fierce competitors. St. Pius X held an 18-13 lead in the first set, but Blessed Trinity came back to win it 25-12. In the second set, Blessed Trinity went up 24-17, St. Pius X fought back, but Blessed Trinity ultimately won the set 26-24. In the third set, St. Pius X came out with more intensity and they prevailed 25-15.  In the fourth set, Blessed Trinity managed to get a lead, St. Pius X clawed their way back to within one point of tying, but Blessed Trinity held on to win 27-25.

St. Pius X had defeated Blessed Trinity two sets to one on Aug. 17.

“Playing Pius early on and losing helped to motivate our team in case we saw them later in the postseason,” said Coach Boes. “We knew they had a really solid defense, a setter that could move the ball around well, and hitters that had to be respected.”

In terms of work ethic, the senior players on Blessed Trinity’s team made it a point to inspire and motivate their teammates throughout the season.

No one on the team had won a state championship and the seniors were determined to finish their careers with a ring,” said Boes.

McKenna Nelson, Kaya Hood and Alyssa Parodi spearheaded Blessed Trinity’s attack with 14, 12 and 11 kills, respectively. As a team they had 125 digs during the match. Abbie Granson led the way with 41, followed by Reese Hall’s 20 and Cara Bianco’s 15.

St. Pius X sophomores Lura Underwood and Emma Farrell led the team with 14 kills and 30 digs, respectively, in the loss.

This is Boes’ ninth year of coaching volleyball and her fourth year as a varsity high school head coach. She was the head coach at Duluth High School for three years and she also coached club volleyball. In 2017 Boes was named a “Top 30 Under 30 Volleyball Coach” by the American Volleyball Coaches’ Association. She turns 31 this December.

“The focus of our team this season was on servant leadership and our team did exactly that,” said Coach Boes. “We sat down at the beginning of the season to discuss what servant leadership looked like, revisited those goals a few times throughout the season, and ultimately were able to reach our goals, because no one player put their needs above those of the team.”