Mistakes costly as Connellsville swept from playoffs
FORT ALLEN — The margin for error in the playoffs of any sport is very slim.
That’s not an earth-shattering statement by any means, but sometimes it doesn’t get real until a team reaches the playoffs and is summarily dismissed.
The Connellsville girls volleyball team got a graphic lesson Wednesday night at Hempfield Area High School. Facing undefeated Armstrong in the first round of the WPIAL Class AAA playoffs, the Lady Falcons made an inordinate number of mistakes and were swept out of the postseason in three sets, 25-22, 25-20, 25-14.
“We talked about the fact that you have to play mistake-free volleyball to win,” said Connellsville coach Casey O’Brien. “The way we played tonight was kind of uncharacteristic for us.”
Example one of that was how the Lady Falcons jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the first set, but lost eight of the next 10 points and suddenly it was 8-8. From that point on, Armstrong seemed to carry the play and Connellsville only had one lead the rest of set.
“During the regular season when we had the lead in a set, we did a good job of finishing them,” O’Brien said. “That was kind of disappointing, but we had six missed serves in that first one and that’s a great way to throw away those first six points.”
Unfortunately for the Lady Falcons, there was more of the same in the second set. The teams went back and forth early before Connellsville took over. The lead steadily increased until Connellsville led, 16-9. But the River Hawks put on run, scoring nine of the next 10 points to tie the score at 17.
From that point on, Connellsville wasn’t able to muster another rally.
The third set was the least productive for the Lady Falcons. They battled Armstrong and, at the halfway point of the set, it was tied at 12. Whether Connellsville ran out of gas or Armstrong just wore them down, the River Hawks outscored the Lady Falcons, 13-2, the rest of the way.
That included a run of 11 straight points.
“I don’t know how to react to that set,” O’Brien said. “We’ve preached to the kids all year that if we lose the first two sets, we’re going to win in five. Armstrong played well at all of the critical rotations and they obviously made many less mistakes than we did.”
The River Hawks also did a good job in handling Connellsville’s power game. Abbey Davis and Abbie Siecinski unloaded some powerful returns, but overall, Armstrong controlled that part of the game and that played a big part in the outcome.
Connellsville, which ended its season with an 10-5 record, was led statistically Siecinski. The senior recorded 10 kills, 13 digs and two blocks. Junior Gianna Sigado led the team with 12 kills, while Morgan Domer had 16 digs and Davis had four kills and five blocks.
“We competed within the section and that was good,” O’Brien said of his team’s 8-4 section record. “We have some young kids on the team who hopefully will step up next year and improve on what we did.”
Armstrong (15-0) will meet North Allegheny or Canon-McMillan in the quarterfinals.