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Appearing in their first state finals in a decade, the Thomas Johnson High volleyball team got off to an inauspicious start from which it never fully recovered.

Dumping the initial two points into the net, the Patriots searched in vain to find a rhythm, while falling to Annapolis' Broadneck 3-1 (25-18, 25-21, 23-25, 25-12) in Monday's Class 4A state championship at the University of Maryland's Ritchie Coliseum.

It was the Bruins second consecutive state crown , and the fifth in school history.

"At the very beginning [we made too many mistakes]," and we couldn't get back into it," TJ's Stacey Niehoff said.

Broadneck (17-1) fired first and remained on the offensive throughout. Outside hitter Kourtney Salvarola (12 kills) possessed a velocity and power not encountered by Thomas Johnson (16-3) since a meeting with West Virginia state champions Musselman last month. Caroline Jacobs delivered a dozen kills, while Avery Goddard added eight.

The Bruins recorded 10 aces and eight team blocks.

"Their three big hitters kept us under attack all night at that was probably the difference," Thomas Johnson head coach Jim Dorsch said. "They were attacking and attacking."

As the defending champs, the Bruins are accustomed to the atmosphere of Ritchie and the sentiment of the contest. TJ was not. Although the Patriots had previously found success in College Park while knocking off Magruder in Friday's semifinal, this match was different.

Green to the moment, they killed themselves with an uncharacteristically high 53 errors.

"I think we might have been a little too excited in the beginning," TJ's Melanie Springer said.

Trailing 5-1, Dorsch was forced to call a timeout early in the opening game. The Patriots would fall behind 9-1 before rallying to take seven of the next eight points, five of which came with Niehoff at the line. Broadneck would reassert control and finished up with a Goddard kill.

Game two was a much closer affair with neither team managing to pull away for the majority of the session. Chelsea Van Buskirk knotted things at 18 all, and then put TJ ahead with an ace.

However Broadneck, who earlier in the year had won TJ's tournament in Frederick, bounced back for a 2-0 advantage on a 7-3 run.

A Megan Lynch ace put TJ ahead 17-13 in the third. Behind for most of the game, Broadneck fought its way to a 22-21 advantage, it's first since 7-6. Van Buskirk retaliated with an ace and kill before Lynch ended the game with a spike to keep the Pats in the match.

Having fought the good fight, TJ simply had nothing left to give in the fourth. The Bruins went up 19-9 and wrapped up the title with a pair of Jacobs' aces.

Lynch supplied a match-high 13 kills. Melanie Springer had 31 assists while Niehoff grinded out 22 digs.