With one week remaining in the girls volleyball season, one Centre County team remains in the hunt for a state championship.
Philipsburg-Osceola was victorious in its first two PIAA Class 2A tournament matches, and two more wins would bring a trophy home with the Lady Mounties.
The experience is familiar to the program — it’s the fourth straight season P-O has still been on the court for the season’s final week, with state semifinal losses the last two years and a title match loss in 2020.
Their first task is to get past District 7 champion Beaver (22-0) on Nov. 14. That could be followed by the PIAA championship match at 1 p.m. Nov. 18 at Cumberland Valley High School in Mechanicsburg, with each possible opponent familiar. The other semifinal features Forest Hills, which lost to the Mounties in the regular season and in the District 6 title match Nov. 4, and Trinity, which beat P-O in the 2020 final.
They know the opponents will be challenging, but Lady Mounties coach Dave Eckberg feels his team is confident in what lies ahead.
“We spend a lot of time focusing on specific game plans for the next opponent we face,” he said. “I think that helps them feel confident coming into the match and keeps the nerves down a bit. They are a smart group and respond well to the level of preparation we put in.”
P-O (24-0) opened the state tournament with a 25-11, 25-10, 25-12 home sweep of Avonworth on Nov. 7. Reese Hazelton paced the win with 17 kills, two aces and eight digs, while Sophie Granville posted seven kills, three aces and seven digs. The team also got five kills and three blocks from Ava Ropert, 16 assists from Maddy Lumadue and 12 assists from Natalie Betz.
District 7 runner-up Freeport was dispatched 25-15, 25-22, 25-22 in the quarterfinals Nov. 11 in Punxsutawney behind 25 kills, five aces and 17 digs from Hazelton and seven kills and 11 digs from Granville. Ropert added five kills and four blocks, Betz gave out 18 assists, Lumadue had 15 assists, Megan Johnson posted three blocks and Annie Johnson had two aces and 16 digs.
“The girls were really excited to advance to the semifinals,” Eckberg said. “We knew that our path wasn’t going to be easy with all of the WPIAL (District 7) teams in our half of the bracket. We just have to focus on one opponent at a time.”
District 6 has one other program still seeking a state title, with P-O neighbor West Branch facing Mount Calvary Christian in the Class A semifinals on Nov. 14. The Class A final is at 10:30 a.m. Nov. 18 at Cumberland Valley.
Hazelton officially to be a Hoosier
P-O had another special occasion in the opening days of the state playoffs, with Hazelton signing her National Letter of Intent with Indiana University on Nov. 8.
To say the 6-foot-2 senior outside hitter has had a prolific high school career would be an understatement. Entering the PIAA semifinals, she had 2,410 kills, 1,399 digs, 238 aces and 164 blocks for her career. She is the first known Centre County athlete to surpass 2,000 career kills, she is the third in P-O history to achieve 1,000 kills and she is first at the school with over 1,000 digs. She reached 1,000 kills before the end of her sophomore season and broke Taylor Harpster’s program record of 1,540 midway through her junior season.
She posted over 600 kills in each of the last three seasons, with 605 so far this year and 696 in 2022. She also has 340 digs this year, and had 410 in 2022, which trailed only the 432 from Elizabeth Robertson in 2014.
Hazelton gave her oral commitment to the Hoosiers more than a year ago but couldn’t make it official until National Signing Day.
“It was a special moment getting to see one of your athletes sign with a BigTen program,” Eckberg said. “To have that opportunity speaks volumes to the amount of dedication she has put into becoming the player that she is. This is just the beginning for her.”
Bald Eagle Area
The Lady Eagles (19-3) won their PIAA first-round match before falling in the Class 3A quarterfinals on Nov. 11. It marked the program’s best showing since reaching the PIAA finals in 2018 and 2019, winning the former match.
The showing was quite the turnaround from a 7-13 season in 2022.
“It’s definitely not the ending that we wanted but I can’t be more proud of my girls this season and the ups and downs they were able to fight through and just winning a district title after not having a winning season last year,” second-year coach Zach Rote said. “It was just an amazing feeling as a coach to see your team grow, and I credit the girls’ hard work and dedication to the sport that was able to lead us to a very successful season.”
BEA edged District 3’s Greencastle-Antrim on Nov. 7, guided by setter Taylor Habovick’s 48 assists to deliver a balanced offense, with 16 kills for Leah Bryan and 11 each for Myia Brooks and Taylor Hall. Casey Angelotti knocked in a pair of aces, and the defense got three blocks from Rachel Bryan, 18 digs from Olivia Taylor, 13 digs from Gabbie Perry and 11 digs from Habovick.
The obstacle was decidedly more difficult in the quarterfinals, falling 25-11, 25-16, 25-17 to District 7 champion Hampton (23-0) in Punxsutawney.
Hall had nine kills and a block, Perry followed with six kills and two aces, Bryan had five kills, Habovick distributed 23 assists, and digs leaders were Taylor with 11 and Olivia Boone with seven.
“Hampton was a very good volleyball team,” Rote said. “They had some really good girls on their team and we definitely didn’t play our best game, but all credit goes to Hampton because they were a very complete volleyball team.
“It was a great year after last year. I’m very proud.”
State College
The Lady Little Lions (7-9) got their home court for their Class 4A opener but could not stop District 7 runner-up Canon-McMillan 25-22, 25-13, 25-15 on Nov. 7.
The offense managed only 20 kills, led by six from Annie LaMotta and four each from Alex Haskins and Sarah Tate. Tate also had four aces and seven digs, Haskins added a pair of blocks, Lily D’Altrui gave out nine assists and Jessie Campbell had eight assists and 10 digs. Alexis Fisher recorded nine digs and Brynn Lally added seven digs.
State College worked through a season that never saw the team with a record above .500, but did result in a 13th consecutive District 6 crown.
“We were happy with the progress,” coach Chad Weight said. “Since our home tournament, we started to play better. The margin of victories with Mid Penn opponents increased quite significantly.”
