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It was well before midnight on Thursday when the glass slipper shattered on the Surrattsville High School volleyball team's Cinderella season. The Hornets lost to Smithsburg 25-1, 25-2, 25-7 in a Class 1A State semifinal match at the University of Maryland's Ritchie Coliseum.

Surrattsville (14-3) earned a region title for the first time in 24 years, winning the 1A South Region with three playoff victories. The Hornets were seeking to reach the state volleyball finals for only the second time in school history. But much of the drama ended early – perhaps as early as the pregame warm-ups.

Smithsburg jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the first game and then closed the game with 16 consecutive service winners from Leopards' junior setter Taylor Belella.

"We have faced a lot of girls that can serve the ball well in our league," said Surrattsville coach Arthur Warren. "We've faced girls with crisp serves like that. We just didn't make the passes tonight. It probably took us until the third game to really get loose. Midway through the third game you could see the girls were finally starting the have fun."

During their regular season schedule and throughout their run to the 1A South Region title, the Hornets relied on outside hitters Mallory Johnson and Moriah Perry. The pair combined for more than 400 kills during the season. But on Thursday night, neither had a single kill. As a team, Surrattsville collected only two kills in the match, the first of which came from senior Tiara Battle midway through the third game.

"I was really impressed with the way [Smithsburg] warmed up," Battle said. "They had a lot of intensity in warm-ups. We play some good teams in our league, but not like them. They hit everything hard."

Smithsburg junior Katie Sprecher started the second game with a 16-0 service run before committing an error that gave the Hornets their first point of the game. Another rotation error by the Leopards accounted for Surrattsvile's other point in the second game, which ended with six consecutive service winners from Belella.

"Sometimes I aim for a player, but most of the time I'm just trying to hit a spot," Belella said of her serves after finishing the match with 12 aces and 12 assists. "I never really looked at the score. I just kept serving until the game was over."

Smithsburg started the third game with service runs from reserves Danielle Beaver and Paige Decker. Surrattsville finally scored an attack point when Perry set Battle for a kill to make it 15-3. Surrattsville got one other kill later from Amber Walls. The Hornets also got one ace each from Johnson and Perry before Beaver ended the match with four consecutive service winners and a kill from junior Sara Rishell (12 kills) off an assist from Sprecher.