Lady Raiders hold off Keystone Oaks, 3-2
WHITEHALL — Waynesburg Central outlasted Keystone Oaks in a WPIAL Class AA girls volleyball preliminary round playoff match at Baldwin High School on Tuesday night, 3-2.
After splitting the first four sets, 25-16, 23-25, 25-20 and 21-25, the Lady Raiders (14-3) ended the fifth set on a 9-5 run for a 15-9 win.
“We stressed communication the last week after the Beth-Center loss (last Tuesday),” Waynesburg coach Dan Higinbotham said. “When you communicate, you give yourself a better chance to win. We worked on that and serving, and I think those two things carried us tonight.”
Waynesburg earned the No. 12 seed in the first round and met Seton LaSalle on Thursday at Serra Catholic High School.
Senior Abby Gibbons led the charge for the Lady Raiders with 20 kills.
“We had a lot to prove tonight,” Gibbons said. “After winning our section we were surprised that we had a preliminary round game. We fed off that emotion and used it as a positive. We had to win this for us and we had to win for our section.”
Other key contributors were sophomore Abby Fisher (25 assists, four aces), junior Emerson Foringer (11 digs), sophomore Alexis Pantalone (six kills), senior Hanna Headlee (five kills) and freshman Riley Bowers (five kills).
“Abby Fisher was really strong for us at the line,” Higinbotham said. “We usually win or lose off the arm of Abby Gibbons, tonight she was once again clutch for us. We got the ball to her on the outside. We got a lot of kills from our mids too. This playoff win is huge after ending the regular season with a loss.”
Trailing 4-1 in the early stages of the opening set, Waynesburg regrouped with a 10-2 spurt and ended the set on an 11-4 spree for the nine-point victory.
After the Lady Eagles (5-8) took the second set 25-23, Keystone Oaks held a 16-10 lead at the midpoint of the third set.
A couple of kills from Gibbons and Bowers got Waynesburg back into the set, and the Lady Raiders closed it out on an 8-0 run behind some strong serves by Fisher.
“We had to work better as a team in order to win tonight,” Fisher said. “We were really pumped up and ready to go for this one. I just kept my composure at the service line and tried not to over think things. My serve was definitely working tonight.”
Waynesburg held a 15-7 lead in the fourth, but Keystone Oaks battled back with an 18-6 burst to force a fifth set.
The Lady Raiders went up 2-0 in the fifth set after a service point from sophomore Peyton Foringer and block by Bowers.
A 10-4 lead forced the Lady Eagles to call a timeout, but it was all Waynesburg the rest of the way with five of the next 10 points. Gibbons recorded five kills in the set.
“There was a lot of momentum shifts tonight,” Gibbons said. “I just stepped up my game in that fifth set and I knew I had to come through for my team. I didn’t want my season to end tonight. We had to kick ourselves in the butts to get this win.”