PHILADELPHIA – Yesterday the Archbishop Ryan Ragdolls took a tough loss to their non league opponent Neshaminy High School in straight sets. It was their eighth loss in a row including three Catholic League games (St. Huberts, Lansdale Catholic and Cardinal O’Hara).
Neshaminy won 25-22 in the first set, 25-16 in the second and 25-21 in the third. Ryan senior captain, Anna Meredith, scored 6 straight points for the Ragdolls in the second set to get her team out of a 5-0 run by Neshaminy. Meredith’s excellent play got the team fired up and the crowd involved, which can get very loud in Ryan’s gymnasium.
The Ragdolls have a match tomorrow against Little Flower and are trying to end their eight game losing streak after starting the season with two straight wins.
“We have to communicate more on the court and do our best if we want to beat Little Flower tomorrow,” said Ryan senior Erin Lyons.
Little Flower is currently 0-5 and Ryan is 2-3 so it is going to be a good Philadelphia Catholic League match. Ryan then faces Archbishop Carroll next week.
“For me personally, I need to learn to focus on playing point to point. There are a lot of games where we are far behind but somehow we manage to come back. I think if we can learn to play from start to finish, as well as we did against Wissahickon (win) or even against Villa or Wood(losses) where we were all playing as a team, we can really put up a good game against good teams,” said Meredith. “We lost 9 seniors last year so we're a relatively young team and still getting used to playing with one another. I think to finish our season strong, all of us really need to work on recognizing what our individual role is on the team, and putting our strengths to good use.”
Ryan continues to work hard every day at practice and hopes this effort will pay off during the remainder of the season.