The St. Mary's Lady Hawks defeated the St. John Lady Hornets in the 5th annual Alumni Bragging Rights event held at Chester High School's Daniel Colbert Memorial Gym Saturday, March 27.
The annual charity event for both parochial schools in Chester has featured basketball games between the two schools the first four years of the event however this year, organizers of the event decided to let the ladies have their turn and a volleyball match was played.
The contest consisted of four games by decades which were timed at 20 minutes each with two 10-minute halves. Rally scoring rules were used however a single player couldn't serve more than five times in a row. The school with the highest combined score of all of the games was declared the winner which was St. Mary's.
After losing the first two years in the matchup, the Hawks and Lady Hawks have reeled off three wins in a row and now lead the all-time series matchup 3-2.
Ladies from the 70s began the match and after the first twenty minutes, the Lady Hawks led the Lady Hornets 43-21.
The Lady Hawks then took command of the match for good during the 80s match. St. Mary's outscored St. John's 50-15 and held a commanding 93-36 lead halfway through the night.
St. Mary's continued their dominance during the 90s match, building a 138-55 lead heading to the final 20 minutes. During that stretch the Lady Hawks outscored St. John's 45-19.
However the final 20 minutes belonged to St. John's. The Lady Hornets outscored St. Mary's 39-22 but won the travelling trophy for a third year in a row with a 160-94 decision over their cross-town rivals.
During the night, the Chester High School Dance Team along with alumni members performed for the crowd. The St. Mary's and St. John cheerleaders also performed.
First grade students from St. John's performed the National Anthem to begin the night's activities.
Bob Welker with Rozier's Country Market sponsors a halftime skills challenge. Four individuals were selected to participate in the challenge where you had to serve a volleyball and hit a plate on the opposite side of the court. None of the four were successful so they decided to let two players from each school attempt to hit a plate but they were also unsuccessful.
Welker, along with Mike Lochhead of Lochhead Service Station, each agreed to donate $100 to each school.
More than 500 photos along with a music slideshow have been added to this website. Look for the links in the left side bar.
For the past four years, the Alumni Bragging Rights game between alumni from St. John Lutheran and St. Mary’s Catholic has been a basketball game but organizers of the yearly event have made a change for the upcoming contest.