Eight local athletes earn volleyball honors

The accolades keep pouring in for the Bald Eagle Area girls’ volleyball team.

The PIAA Class 2A champions had five Lady Eagles named to the Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association All-State team.

In addition, three members of the State College program picked up honors in Class 4A, on the heels of the Lady Little Lions’ run to the PIAA quarterfinals.

Both programs repeated as District 6 champions this past season, the seventh straight for State College and the third in five seasons for the Lady Eagles.

Scoring spots on the 56-girl list for Class 2A were BEA’s Grace Hugar, Madison Rockey, Taylor Kilmer, Lacee Barnhart and Lexi Skripek. Hugar and Rockey each earned All-State accolades for a second time. Skripek is a sophomore, while the other four Eagles are juniors.

The Lady Eagles finished the season with a 23-0 record, and beat Holy Redeemer in straight sets for the first state championship in the program’s history, and the first for any Centre County girls’ volleyball team.

“We knew how hard we worked to get there and what we wanted to do,” Rockey said after the team won the state title in November. “We finally got there, so it’s just a good feeling.”

State College saw Jess Irwin, Leah Henderson and Kacy Sekunda earn All-State honors on the 50-player Class 4A list. Henderson and Irwin, both seniors, also were on the list last season, and it marks the third straight campaign with multiple State College athletes on the All-State list. Sekunda is a sophomore.

The Lady Little Lions finished with a 21-1 record, and fell to eventual state champion North Allegheny in the quarterfinals.