Lady Crusaders wear down California, 3-0
Evan Sanders
California’s Annalise Gillespie (16) celebrates after a spike past Bishop Canevin’s Tamara Blue (12) during the second set of their WPIAL Class A girls volleyball quarterfinal match at Baldwin High School Tuesday night.
California's Kiera Tyler (4) and Kylie Trusler (5) work to get the ball past Bishop Canevin's Maddie Maziarz (3) during the second set of their WPIAL Class A girls volleyball quarterfinal match at Baldwin High School Tuesday night.
during the second set of their WPIAL Class A girls volleyball quarterfinal match at Baldwin High School Tuesday night.
California's Alexis Kronander (12) sets a pass to a teammate during the first set of a WPIAL Class A girls volleyball quarterfinal match against Bishop Canevin at Baldwin High School Tuesday night.
WHITEHALL — The first set was the turning point for California in its WPIAL Class A girls volleyball quarterfinal match against Bishop Canevin on Tuesday night.
The Lady Trojans and Lady Crusaders battled back and forth through seven lead changes but a couple late service errors by California allowed Bishop Canevin to take the opening set, 27-25.
While it looked like that might be a prelude to a five-set battle, it was all Lady Crusaders after that as the No. 2 seed rolled to wins in the second and third sets, 25-17 and 25-15, to sweep the Lady Trojans, 3-0.
Bishop Canevin advances to the semifinals where it will face third-seeded Frazier on Thursday.
Seventh-seeded California, which finished second in Section 2 behind the Lady Commodores, sees its season end at 12-4.
“If we would’ve won that first set I think it would’ve been a whole different ballgame,” Lady Trojans coach Renee Pascoe said. “The girls just came out flat the second set and we just could not regroup from there.”
The Lady Crusaders (15-1) jumped out to a 5-1 lead in that opening set before California fought back and went up 11-8 with a five-point run sparked two kills and a block by Kiera Tyler.
Bishop Canevin took seven of the next eight points to go up 15-12. That was followed by a four-point run by the Lady Trojans on Ina Helmick’s serve that was capped by a kill by Annalise Gillespie. The Lady Crusaders used a 6-2 run to reclaim the lead but California responded with four straight, including a kill by Tyler, to go back up 22-21, before Bishop Canevin made a push to go up 24-23.
The Lady Trojans staved off two match points, one on a point by Tyler and one on a kill by Gillespie, before the Lady Crusaders finally prevailed.
Five of Bishop Canevin’s final six points came due to unforced errors by California with the other being a kill by Alexa Malloy.
“I told the girls at one point that we were beating ourselves out there,” said Pascoe, who used two time outs in the first set. “I said we needed to clean up our ball handling to win the game.”
California held an 11-9 lead in the second set before Bishop Canevin roared back with a 12-2 run on its way to the eight-point win to go up 2-0.
The Lady Trojans fell behind 5-0 in the third set but reeled off the next five points to pull even, thanks to kills by Alexis Kronander and Gillespie on Rebecca Staley’s serve. The Lady Crusaders exploded with an eight-point run, though California countered with a five-point burst that included two kills by Kylie Trusler, one by Tyler and an ace by Gillespie.
Bishop Canevin went on a 7-2 run to go up 20-12 and force Pascoe to use her sixth time out, but the Lady Crusaders still went on to a 10-point win to close out the match.
“I kept calling time out because I could see that they were losing their momentum out there and I wanted to get them built back up, to try to regroup and get playing back together again,” Pascoe said.
“But I give Bishop Canevin credit. They were hitting on us, hitting the ball well, and we just weren’t getting there to block to slow down the hit.”
Malloy and Kylie Airesman both turned in strong performances for the Lady Crusaders.
Tyler led California with 10 kills and two blocks and Gillespie had six kills and two service points. Trusler contributed six kills and one service point, Jenna Miller added 10 digs and one kill, Alexis Kronander had two kills and Staley chipped in with seven digs.
“I’m very proud of my girls,” Pascoe said. “I have five great seniors (Tyler, Trusler, Staley, Miller and Kronander) that I’m going to lose this year, but I have a good bench and I think next year we’ll have another good run.”