Recently, the Joseph Case High School volleyball team decided to make the jump to Div. 3, and it appears to be paying dividends in the near term. Senior outside hitter Madilyn Botelho (16 kills, 14 digs, three aces) and freshman Kayla Dowdell (10 kills, three blocks) led a complete team effort Wednesday as the third-seeded Cardinals punched their first ticket to a title match since 2022 with a memorable 3-1 victory over the reigning state champion in No. 2 Medfield, 3-1.
Facing a perennial juggernaut, the Cardinals showed no fear to start, opening with a 7-0 run to start the game. They would stave off a rally, as freshman Willow Andree closed things out with an ace to win the set, 25-11, and give Case a 1-0 lead overall.
The second frame started with both schools trading points. Then the young stars stood up for Case again as the school made it four in a row to take a 9-4 lead into the stanza. From that moment on the advantage only grew.
Looking to gain a commanding lead for her team in the match, freshman Kayla Dowdell impressively completed a kill to take the set, 25-10. Suddenly, the Cardinals had put the state champions against the proverbial wall and were up 2-0 overall.
“I definitely didn’t expect that at all,” laughed Dowdell. “I was nervous coming in, but I was also very excited. I never thought we would be so far ahead…I didn’t know we would go so fast, but we did.”
However, the Warriors (19-5) did not give up. Led by key players such as Kendall Larkin and Ava Pender, Medfield managed to win the third set with authority, 25-14. Suddenly it felt like the momentum started to swing.
“We didn’t have a lot of peak attempts in the third,” Case coach Brendan Kelly said. I turned to my assistant and said, “How many kills or attempts?” We’ve gotten really soft on a lot of those things, so (the key) was to get back to that.
In a crucial fourth set, the two schools traded punches. Dowdell finished off a kill as Case jumped ahead 5-4. The Cardinals went on a 10-5 run to push their lead to 14-9 in the frame.
But then Medfield answered and went on a 6-0 run of their own to take the lead, 15-14.
With the game on the line, Kelly’s team responded with a hay push. Dowdell took over late and nailed another kill to give Case a 20-15 lead.
Looking for the dagger, Dowdell lifted a volley over the net. As the Warriors tried to get back, the whistle blew for a foul, and the Cardinals began celebrating. Once again, they were headed to the state title game.
“We went to the (Div. 4) Final Four last year and ran into that Ipswich team,” Kelly said. “We knew Division 4 like the back of our hands, so we moved up to Division 3 and had to navigate a whole new group of teams, including these guys as defending champions. So yeah, (this is great).”
Case will now look to win its first state title since 2016. Botelho was a member of the last Cardinals team to reach a championship game in 2022. Ironically, she and her teammates will now try to overcome the hurdle against another school that chose to make the jump to Div. 3. That would be top-seeded Bellingham.
“I think it’s going to be a cool storyline,” Botelho said. “I knew it would be a lot different coming from Div. 4. Div. 4 definitely lost some steam losing Case and Bellingham. But I think all the remaining teams in Div. 3 are going to be a little surprised that the two teams in the state championship are from Div. 4. There’s going to be a little bit of anger about that. But I think it’s going to be a cool story because it’s different. It doesn’t happen that often.”
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