The dreams of a girls’ volleyball state championship for Philipsburg-Osceola were dashed Nov. 16.
Pittsburgh North Catholic spoiled the plans by rallying for a five-set win in the PIAA Class 2A semifinals at Keystone High School in Knox.
After a year of waiting — ever since the Lady Mounties lost in the 2020 title match to Trinity — they had been aching to return to the finals and win that last match.
The Trojanettes will instead be playing in the championship against Trinity, which swept Allentown Central Catholic 3-0 in the other semifinal. The finals are set for Nov. 20 at Cumberland Valley High School.
In the 19-25, 29-31, 25-13, 25-23, 15-12 semifinal loss, the Lady Mounties (20-1) could practically taste the win before it slipped away. They showed off their power in the first set and survived a marathon second before North Catholic (20-1) controlled the third. P-O held a 19-15 lead in the fourth and was still up 23-21, a mere two points from a win, before letting the set and eventually the match get away.
“Obviously it’s tough,” coach Dave Eckberg said. “I think the kids, like myself, are more disappointed about not being able to look forward to another day on the court with the group that has been so close for so long. They played their hearts out.”
P-O lost despite another outstanding performance from sophomore Reese Hazelton, who put down 36 kills to go with 17 digs and four aces. Jayden Perks added 11 kills and two blocks and London Cutler had eight kills, 13 digs and two blocks. Janey johnson picked up 15 digs and Bella Curtorillo had 13 digs.
The team had worked hard to get back to the final weekend, and Eckberg had worked hard to keep the team focused on the process and what they had been wanting since last November. They also knew by this point, nothing would be easy.
“I remind the girls to focus on the goal itself,” Eckberg said. “It’s to come back to the same Saturday in November and come out wearing a different color medal.”
The match against the Trojanettes was a rematch of last year’s semifinals, won 3-1 by the Lady Mounties, and having P-O, North Catholic and Trinity involved in the state semifinals seemed inevitable.
The Lady Mounties, Shamrocks and Trojanettes have spent the entire season ranked in the top three of the Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association’s Class 2A weekly poll. Trinity began the year No. 1, but swapped spots with P-O midway through the year as the only change among the three programs.
That, and the appearance in last year’s final, placed a target squarely on the Lady Mounties, making them a very wellknown opponent. Last year they were at times underestimated and took teams by surprise.
“Every team this year has played their best against us,” said senior setter Kalista Butler, who had 58 assists and two blocks in the loss. “It’s been a little bit harder to beat teams, but we’ve been trying to keep on the throttle.”
While P-O may have lost the element of surprise, they gained the valuable experience of playing in the tough matches of last year’s state playoff and plenty of challenging tournaments this season.
“We had that discussion very early in the year that there would be no surprises and every team would be putting a bullseye on them — and rightfully so,” Eckberg said.
“They knew that expectation, they handled it with grit and determination, and they knew they had to re-double their efforts to become an even better team.”
However, even with those incredibly high expectations, knowing anything less than at least a return to the state final would be a disappointment, they had to keep focusing on the teams in front of them and not skip ahead to Nov. 20.
“It is tough because our big goal is to win states,” Hazelton said. “But we had to watch film, focus on the team we were playing and take the matches one step at a time so we could get to the end.”
Eckberg continually used the phrase “be myopic” — be near-sighted — with his team since the start of districts to keep the team from looking ahead.
“The girls know what the word means,” he said.
“They probably didn’t before I told them, so that’s been the theme — to focus on one opponent at a time. Has their focus been on Trinity and a rematch? Perhaps, but they’ve done their part of not alluding to that, and they’ve been focusing their efforts on our next opponent.”
P-O advanced to the semifinal rematch by beating Harbor Creek 25-14, 25-11, 23-25, 25-17 in the Nov. 13 quarterfinals, following Hazelton’s 28 kills, 16 digs, seven aces and three blocks. Cutler added 16 kills and 18 digs, Butler gave out 48 assists, and three aces came from Josie Tekely and Annie Johnson. Defensively, Janey Johnson had 18 digs, with three blocks for Perks and two for Paige Jarrett.
STATE COLLEGE
The Lady Little Lions put five team members on the Mid Penn Conference Commonwealth Division All-Star Team. Named to the first team were Claire Jordan and Kate Lally, while Molly Thompson was a second-team selection. Iris Archibald and Sam Shala were given honorable mention awards.
State College (12-3) saw its season end 25-8, 25-13, 25-23 to four-time defending state champion North Allegheny in the PIAA Class 4A playoffs. In the loss, Jordan posted two aces and eight digs, five kills each came from Lally and Sophie Wales, Lally also had eight assists and Shala added seven, and Thompson picked up seven digs.
