CENTRE COUNTY — State College and Bald Eagle Area are both in first place in girls’ volleyball; Saint Joseph’s Catholic Academy is second in the Tri-Valley Conference.
The Little Lions lead the Mid Penn Commonwealth Conference with a 7-0 record, one game ahead of Mechanicsburg. The Little Lady Lions are also ranked No. 1 in District 6, AAAAAA.
Bald Eagle Area is the top team in the Laurel Highlands 1 Conference with an 8-0 record, and two players reached career milestones in the last match against Bellwood-Antis.
Leah Bryan nailed her 1000th career kill in the third set, and defender Nora Eppley got her 500th career dig in the first set. Philipsburg-Osceola is third in the conference at 8-1, while Penns Valley is fifth and Bellefonte is in seventh place.
St. Joseph’s was leading the Tri-Valley, but two recent close losses put the team in second place at this time.
State College took solid control of the Mid Penn Commonwealth with a very close, 25-22, 23-25, 25-23, 25-21 victory at Cumberland Valley on Sept. 24.
The Lions’ Stella Cawley paced the offense with 18 kills, and Nora Cawley led with 28 assists. Kenzie Kurzinger chipped in with 16 assists, while Helena Woskob and Camryn MacNeely combined for 26 digs on defense.
After SC won the first set, CV came back and took an extremely close second set, 25-23, and then shot out ahead early in the third set.
But State College rebounded and rallied to win the crucial set, 25-23, and then closed out the match strong with a 25-21 win in the fourth set.
The win for State College was its fourth in its last five matches, with the only loss coming to District 1 power Spring-Ford on Sept. 20.
On Oct. 6, the Lions will visit second place Mechanicsburg with first place in the conference hanging in the balance.
In Wingate, the Lady Bald Eagles are on a roll with four straight shutout LHAC victories and a perfect 8-0 record in the conference.
BEA took 3-0 wins over Tyrone, Bellefonte, Central and Bellwood-Antis since Sept. 18 and improved its overall record to 14-2.
Against Bellwood on Sept. 25, the Eagles swept the match, 25-19, 25-16, 25-23, and in the process, Bryan and Eppley reached their career milestones.
Bryan needed 19 kills coming into the match, and she finished with exactly that. Her final kill ended the third set and the match.
Eppley finished with 11 digs, Casey Angellotti recorded 32 assists and led the team with 5 aces.
Coming up, the team has matches against Forest Hills, Williamsport and Hollidaysburg remaining in the regular season.
Philipsburg-Osceola is right there with BEA in the LHAC rankings with an 8-1 record and a three-match winning streak.
P-O had a 3-1 win over Huntingdon on Sept. 22, a 3-0 win over Penns Valley on Sept. 23 and a close, 3-2 win over Clearfield on Sept. 25. The match against Clearfield went five sets and was close all the way. The Lady Mounties prevailed 25-15, 25-17, 24-16, 22-25, 15-11.
After taking a 2-0 lead, the Lady Bison rallied back to take sets three and four and tie the match.
In set five, P-O battled out to a 10-8 lead, saw Clearfield come back to make it 13-11, and then closed out the set, and the match, with two final points.
Crosby Holf and Adi Jarrett each had 18 kills for P-O, and Maddie Anderson handed out 37 assists.
The Mounties have three matches remaining against Bishop Carroll, Hollidaysburg and Tyrone.
St. Joseph’s Academy was riding along in first place in the TriValley Conference, but the WolfPack suffered two recent losses that dropped the team into second place with a 4-2 league record and 7-5 overall.
On Sept. 25, SJCA traveled to Millersburg and took a close, 3-2 loss.
After winning the first and third set, SJCA was on the verge of taking the match, but Millersburg rallied in the fourth set to tie the match.
Then, in set five, Millersburg took an early lead and never looked back in the deciding 15-7 win.
Then on Sept. 29 at Halifax, the WolfPack again started strong with a 25-21 win in the first set.
But Halifax took the momentum with wins in set two and three, 25-17 and 25-22, that set up its match win in set four, 25-18.
The losses put SJCA’s overall record at 7-5 heading into important matches against Juniata, Upper Dauphin, Mount Union and Millersburg, again at Millersburg.
The Bellefonte Lady Raiders are 1-1 in their last two matches and now have an overall record of 12-10 and an LHAC mark of 3-7.
The Raiders shut out Bishop Guilfoyle, 3-0, on Sept. 18 with scores of 25-8, 25-19, 25-13, and then fell to unbeaten BEA 3-0 on Sept. 22.
Against Guilfoyle, Keira Clarkson, Matilynn Hepfer, and Colbie Frailey combined for 31 kills while Aubrey Schreppel handed out 25 assists and defender Delaney Gray got 12 digs.
The Raiders now have three tough LHAC matches coming up against Central Cambria, Central, and Penns Valley.
Speaking of Penns Valley, the Rams are 9-8 overall and in fifth place in the LHAC with a 5-4 conference mark.
After conference wins over Huntingdon and Homer-Center, the Rams fell to Philipsburg-Osceola, 3-0, on Sept. 23 and then to Hollidaysburg, 3-0, on the 25th.
Every set in the Hollidaysburg match was close, but the Rams were unable to break through and took the 22-25, 22-25, 20-25 loss.
Penns Valley now has Penn Cambria, Tyrone and Bishop Guilfoyle coming up on its schedule.
