Waynesburg in PIAA volleyball playoffs for first time
Waynesburg Central’s girls volleyball team had to regroup quickly if it wanted to make program history.
The Raiders were coming off a gut-wrenching, five-set loss to eventual champion Avonworth in the WPIAL Class 2A semifinals when they took the floor to face Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Thursday night in the third-place consolation match.
Coach Dan Higinbotham’s Raiders put the loss behind them and put away the Lady Chargers, 3-1, to earn their first trip into the PIAA tournament.
Waynesburg (21-1) won by scores of 25-19, 25-18, 18-25 and 25-16 at Peters Township High School’s AHN Arena.
The Raiders begin the state playoffs Tuesday with a trip to undefeated District 10 champion Corry (17-0) for a 6 p.m. match.
Ani Cree led Waynesburg against OLSH with 18 kills, 25 digs and three blocks, Emily Rafferty totaled eight kills and 15 digs and Railey Bochna contributed eight kills and seven digs.
The Raiders also got 19 assists, 10 digs and two aces from Chatham Knight, 21 assists and two kills from Gina Tedrow, eight kills, two digs and two aces from Harper Grimes and 21 digs and three aces from Lelia McCollum.
Frazier 3, California 2 — The Lady Commodores defeated Section 4 rivals California for the third time this season in the WPIAL Class A third-place consolation match at Charleroi on Saturday to earn a trip into the PIAA tournament.
The third meeting was much different than the first two, however.
Frazier won both of the previous matches during the regular season by 3-1 scores in claiming first place in the section with coach Jennifer Phillips’ Lady Trojans finishing second.
This time California charged out to a 2-0 lead by scores of 25-18 and 25-20, before coach Mandy Hartman’s Lady Commodores came roaring back to win. Frazier took the third and fourth games, 25-15 and 25-19, then secured the match by a nail-biting 17-15 score in the fifth game.
Both teams won two WPIAL playoff matches before falling in the semifinals. It will be Frazier (12-4) that will move on into the state playoffs while California’s season ends with a 13-6 record.
Maddie Salisbury led the way for the Lady Commodores with 26 kills and three blocks. Frazier also got 16 kills and three blocks from Addison Schultz, 34 assists by Allie Monack and 13 digs from Addison Hiles.
Frazier begins PIAA play Tuesday with a trip to District 9 champion Elk County Catholic (14-3) for a 6:30 p.m. match.