From the brink
Frazier shows it mettle with rally past California, PIAA win over Lady Elkers
Frazier’s girls volleyball team was staring at a 2-0 deficit to California on Saturday afternoon with its season on the brink of ending.
Three days later the Lady Commodores found themselves in the PIAA Class A quarterfinals for the second consecutive year.
Frazier stormed back with a reverse sweep to defeat the Lady Trojans in their WPIAL third-place consolation match by scores of 18-25, 20-25, 25-15, 25-19, 17-15 to earn a spot in the state tournament.
The Lady Commodores made the close to three-hour trip to face District 9 champion Elk County Catholic on Tuesday and recovered from dropping the first set to win 3-1 by scores of 20-25, 25-13, 25-15 and 25-17.
Frazier (15-5) will play perennial power Maplewood, the District 10 champion which swept Serra Catholic, 3-0, in its first-round match, at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at North Allegheny.
“Yeah, it’s been quite a turnaround since the second set of that California match,” Frazier coach Mandy Hartman said.
At that point, Frazier had dropped five of its past six sets. The Lady Commodores are now on a roll, having won six of their last seven sets in reaching the state Elite Eight for just the second time in program history.
“What’s nice is they’re getting used to being there,” Hartman said. “What they’re doing and what they’ve done the last four years is not easy to do and it’s taken the program a long time to get there.”
Frazier has a strong volleyball tradition, having claimed its 18th section championship in 21 years under Hartman this season, and the program has had an unprecedented run of postseason success in the last four years. The Lady Commodores won their second WPIAL championship in 2022, reached the PIAA Final Four last year and now has added another state victory to its resume.
“I don’t want them to take it for granted because there are a lot of teams that would dream to be in the position we’ve been in the past few years,” Hartman said. “These kids, going into this match, it wasn’t, oh let’s just be happy we’re in the state playoffs. We’re looking to win.”
The state playoffs were made possible by the comeback against California.
“California has really improved for sure and I think there was a bit of a hangover you have when you lose in the playoffs,” said Hartman, whose team fell to Eden Christian, 3-1, in the district semifinals. “We played California at a local site (Charleroi). It was a section team. A lot of other factors play into that. You have a sense of pride. You’re the section champion. Here you are, your backs are against the wall being faced with an upset to a team that you’ve already beaten twice. That’s a hard pill to swallow.”
The Lady Commodores refused to accept that fate and stormed back, as Hartman expected them to do.
“I didn’t honestly think we were going to lose the match,” Hartman said. “I knew that we were starting extremely slow but I knew we weren’t going to stay at that level the entire match. Was I shocked we turned it around? No, I wasn’t. I think I was just waiting for it to come. In fact I told them after they lost the second set there’s no doubt in my mind we’re winning this match.
“I just know the kind of kids we have there on the floor and I know that they’re a very talented group. So we just had to calm down, settle in and take care of business.”
Maddie Salisbury finished the match off with a kill down the line and Frazier was on to the states.
“Maddie was the leader out there in the comeback,” Hartman said. “Addison Schultz did a really good job as well. It was just a good all-around effort. Everybody took ownership of what they should be doing and they executed. That truly carried into the match against Elk County.”
Hartman wasn’t discouraged when her team dropped the first set to the Lady Elkers (14-4).
“We lost the first set and you could blame it on that long bus ride but I don’t know if I think that’s what it was,” Hartman said. “I did know that after we made some adjustments we were going to have a lot more success and they really did dominate the next three sets.
“We knew they loved to go to the outside, more than 75 percent of their sets were going there. So we made some adjustments with our blockers. My middles did a fabulous job, Addison Schultz and Mia West, at containing their outside hitters. The (Payton) Newton girl, she was the player of the year from their district, the first set she was dominant. We were a little shell-shocked with her. She didn’t look that powerful on film. But as soon as we made the adjustments our middles were getting over to her a lot quicker and containing her, which was allowing our hitters to open up and get some good swings.”
Frazier won the last three sets by an average of 10 points.
Salisbury again led the way for the Lady Commodores with 22 kills and six blocks, and Schultz totaled 11 kills and six blocks. Frazier also got 11 kills from Allie Monack, six kills and five blocks from Mia West, 33 assists from Morgan Fisher and 13 digs apiece from Grace Polkabla and Addison Hiles.
“Grace and Addison played extremely well, they were very aggressive and were passing the ball great,” said Hartman who commended her players’ performance this year.
“It’s a grueling season. I think a lot of times it’s really overlooked what these student-athletes do, what they commit and what they give back to their schools when they compete at this level. These kids have been going strong every single day.”
Hartman realizes taking on Maplewood in the quarterfinals will be a challenge.
“We’ve got another district champion. Maplewood is a program with great tradition and a coach who has been around for a long time,” Hartman said. “She knows what she’s doing. There’s a lot of history there. So we know what we’re up against. We played them two years ago. It’s going to be a battle.
“But we’re excited to be here. We’re playing with a great mental approach right now. The girls are enjoying being out there together. We’re excited to play.”