The girls’ volleyball state championship dreams for Bald Eagle Area are still very real, but State College saw its hopes dashed Saturday.
The Lady Eagles used a dominating start, and a pair of comebacks later, to dispatch Corry 25-17, 25-23, 25-23 in the PIAA Class 2A quarterfinals Saturday at Punxsutawney High School.
A little later at Central Cambria High School in Ebensburg, the Lady Little Lions gave the state’s top-ranked Class 4A team a tough test, but fell to North Allegheny 23-25, 25-15, 25-19, 25-14.
Before this week, the BEA program had not won a PIAA tournament match, but now sits a win away from the state championships.
“It was a good feeling after the match,” coach Larry Campbell said. “I told them I was proud of them and they did a great job executing what we asked if them. It was a good time.”
The Lady Eagles (21-0) will meet defending state champion Freeport, which knocked BEA out of last year’s tournament, in Tuesday’s semifinals. Freeport needed five sets to oust District 7 champion Pittsburgh North Catholic on Saturday.
BEA could not ask for a better start to the day, scoring the first eight points of the match and eventually building a 14-2 lead.
“We played really well to start,” Campbell said. “Our middle (hitter) tempo was too much for them to handle, and it took them a while to figure it out.”
The second set saw Corry turn the tables, opening with an 8-2 lead, eventually building the margin to 12 points and was up 16-6 before the Lady Eagles rallied to tie it at 22-22. The third also saw BEA trailing, this time 20-15, but again got the set knotted at 22-2. Grace Hugar’s final kill of the day closed out the exciting win.
Junior setter Madison Rockey had an all-around day, delivering seven of the team’s 11 aces, giving out 32 assists, picking up eight digs and posting three of the team’s four blocks.
Hugar finished with 14 kills, while Elita Brown and Lacee Barnhart added five apiece. The defense saw 17 digs for Lexi Skripek and 16 from Barnhart.
Getting the fast start helped boost the team’s confidence Saturday, but pulling off the comebacks in the final two sets will be useful next week.
“(It’s) huge,” Campbell said. “Shows how if we just grind and play the way we are capable, we can overcome a lot. Playing together and believing in one another you can achieve more.”
A win Tuesday would put BEA in the state championship match at 1 p.m. Saturday at Cumberland Valley High School in Mechanicsburg.
State College was seeking a second PIAA semifinal appearance in three seasons, but North Allegheny was too sharp and the Lady Little Lions were off their game.
“We ran into a better team than us,” coach Chad Weight said. “They outplayed us. We did a lot of good things this year but tonight wasn’t ours.”
Hitting troubles plagued State College and were a key reason for the loss. The team hit minus-.015 – meaning the Lady Little Lions had more hitting errors than kills.
State College trailed midway through the opening set but rallied late to take the frame. They then had an early lead in the second before the Tigers surged ahead and took control of the match.
“(The team) was confident from the start,” Weight said. “Too many unforced errors and NA took it too us.”
The offense was led by Leah Henderson’s seven kills and 13 assists, and Kacy Sekunda’s seven kills and seven assists. Henderson also made 10 digs while eight apiece came from Sekunda and Erin Lutz. Lauren Arnold had three digs, and two aces apiece were served by Jess Irwin, Kate Lachendro and Katie Finlan.
The Tigers will meet Garnet Valley in Tuesday’s semifinals.
