Beth-Center girls steamroll Shenango
WASHINGTON – What an hour-and-a-half bus ride didn’t do to Shenango’s girls volleyball team Tuesday, Beth-Center did. The Bulldogs barely gave Shenango time to stretch its legs before dispatching the Wildcats back home, courtesy of a steamrolling, 3-0 win in a first-round WPIAL Class A playoff match at Washington High School’s gymnasium. Beth-Center won by the scores, 15-5, 15-2 and 15-0 in the evening’s doubleheader opener.
The Bulldogs, Class A’s third seed, improved to 14-2 on the season, and advance to play Jefferson-Morgan, a winner last night over Our Lady of Sacred Heart, in the second round of the playoffs. Shenango, the third-place team out of Section 3-A, finished its season with an 11-6 record.
“It feels good,” said Beth-Center senior setter and NCAA Division I prospect Jen Paroda. “I think we could’ve played a little bit better, but we got the job done.”
Butterflies were B-C’s biggest concern in the early going. Shenango rebounded from a 4-1 deficit in the first set to briefly claim a 5-4 lead. But the Bulldogs settled down behind Breanne Bell’s serve to take the lead for good, 9-5.
“We started a little tense,” Paroda said. “But once we got our heads together, we started to relax.”
And as Beth-Center began to relax, Shenango began to unravel.
The Bulldogs executed their offense almost to perfection, with Danielle Hutchinson and Samantha Slagle providing most of the punch. Hutchinson tallied seven kills, and Slagle six.
Hampered by a knee injury earlier in the season, Hutchinson is thrilled to be back at full strength, and just as thrilled at the progress of Slagle, a junior.
“She’s just a phenomenal volleyball player,” said Hutchinson. “That’s about all you can say.”
Leslie Kurjanowicz led B-C with 14 service points. Bell followed with a dozen.
No stranger to the playoffs, B-C coach Andy Medved believes his team has the potential to make some noise in Class A.
“This team has been down, and a sign of a good team is its ability to fight back,” said Medved, who has Beth-Center in the postseason for the twelfth time in his 16 years as head coach.