California’s furious rally falls short against Serra Catholic
McMURRAY — Just when it looked like California was about to be swept out of the arena the Lady Trojans came alive.
Serra Catholic took the first two sets in the WPIAL Class A girls volleyball semifinal match but eventually found itself in a five-set battle with the gallant Lady Trojans.
The Lady Eagles survived, regrouping to take the fifth set for a hard-fought 3-2 victory by scores of 25-22, 25-19, 22-25, 21-25 and 15-8 at Peters Township High School’s AHN Arena.
Serra Catholic (12-5) advances to Saturday’s final also at AHN Arena against Section 5 rival Eden Christian, which defeated Frazier 3-1 in the night’s earlier match. The match begins at 11 a.m.
California (13-5) will play the Lady Commodores in the third-place consolation match at 12 p.m. Saturday at Charleroi High School with a PIAA tournament berth on the line.
“We lost 3-1 each time to Frazier but we’ve seen them enough we know what to do,” California head coach Jennifer Phillips said. “It’s just about showing up and doing it.”
The seventh-seeded Lady Trojans didn’t show up completely when Wednesday’s match with Serra Catholic began, falling behind 8-2 in the first set, but they rallied back to take a 19-18 lead. The sixth-seeded Lady Eagles answered with a 7-3 run to close out the set.
Serra Catholic again took a quick 6-2 lead in the second set. Again California fought back and went ahead 13-12 thanks to a four-point run that included a block point by Hayley Gibson, a service ace by Elizabeth Kent and kills by Kent and Morgan Ross.
The Lady Eagles dominated the rest of the set, however, out-scoring California 13-6 to go up 2-0.
Serra Catholic stormed out to an 8-1 advantage in the third set and it seemed a sweep was inevitable.
Then the Lady Trojans finally came alive.
California once again battled back and tied the score at 20-20 on Gibson’s block point then went in front on Giana Smith’s service ace. Serra Catholic tied it at 21-21 but another block kill by Gibson and a kill by Madison Morton started a 4-1 run that closed out the set and got the Lady Trojans within 2-1.
California assistant coach Barbara LeTourneau felt it took her team awhile to adjust to the setting of AHN Arena.
“They haven’t experienced this,” LaTourneau said of playing in such a big arena. “That team (Serra Catholic) has experienced this, they have been here in the past. So I think they had to calm down and say hey we are capable of doing this. Let’s go and play our game.
“Once they realized they were capable of doing that, I think they stepped back and said OK let’s do it. I think we served better, too. We were too timid. We’re a very good serving team. When we start putting more pressure with the serving I think they got a little more disgruntled.”
It was California that got off to a strong start in the fourth set, pushing out to an 8-3 lead that eventually grew to 19-8 after a pair of blocks by Morton kept a point alive that Smith finished off with a kill.
Serra got back into the match on an 8-1 run that including two controversial officiating calls, one when California was called for an illegal formation – “We were using the same formation all night, before and after that, so that was confusing,” Phillips said – and one on what looked like a clean Lady Trojan kill that was called a double hit that LeTourneau protested to no avail.
With its lead cut to 22-19, California got a kill from Gibson to begin a 3-2 run that finished the set and evened the match at 2-2.
“In the first two sets a lot of balls were hitting the floor that we didn’t communicate on,” Phillips said. “But in the next two sets when they realize what they’re capable of you see what happens.”
Reeling, the Lady Eagles regrouped and surged to a 9-4 lead in the fifth set and finally put the gritty Lady Trojans away.
“We got down a couple points, got a little frazzled and made mistakes of our own,” Phillips said of the fifth set. “It was just a combination of things.”
“We struggled with the passing,” LeTourneau said. “We normally pass better than we did today.”
Bayla Galis played a strong game for the Lady Trojans with 23 assists, six digs and two aces.
“For a sophomore, she’s done amazing,” Phillips said.
Ross registered nine kills and 12 digs, Sydney Dunn had eight kills and Morton contributed five kills and three blocks for California, which also got 10 digs and four aces from Addison Frank, 12 digs from Smith and four blocks from Gibson.
“I think in certain sets some girls stood out.” Phillips said.”But across the board it was pretty even performance.”