Waynesburg falls to Avonworth in girls volleyball semifinals
WEXFORD – Waynesburg Central hoped to avenge last year’s heartbreaking semifinal loss to Avonworth, but Antelopes standout Julia Cernich had other ideas.
Cernich, a 6-foot-1 Rice recruit, put down heavy swing after heavy swing to the tune of 21 kills and made sure the Antelopes were headed back to the finals.
No. 3 Avonworth defeated No.2 and previously unbeaten Waynesburg, 3-1, in the WPIAL Class 3A girls volleyball semifinals Wednesday night at North Allegheny.
Avonworth won the Class 2A title last year and now will try to win in 3A.
“This has been our goal all along, to defend our title,” Cernich said. “We were in the position where we were ranked third and they were ranked No. 2, so we really had an underdog mentality, and we just wanted this so bad.”
The Antelopes (18-3) advance to Saturday’s final at Peters Township High School’s AHN Arena where they will play top-seeded Freeport, a 3-1 winner over Seton LaSalle in the other semifinal match.
Waynesburg (19-1) and Seton LaSalle will play in a third-place consolation match on Saturday with the site and time to be determined. All four semifinalists have qualified for the state tournament.
Avonworth stormed back from a 2-0 deficit to beat Waynesburg in five sets last year. The rematch was a little more comfortable for the Antelopes.
Cernich started her banner night with 10 kills in the first set. She had a kill on five of Avonworth’s first 10 points and the Antelopes led 10-3.
The lead got as big as 13-4 before Waynesburg started to claw back.
The Raiders went on a 13-5 run to get within a point at 18-17.
A Cernich kill gave the Antelopes a 22-19 lead, but Waynesburg again made a run with a kill by Harper Grimes, a couple Avonworth hitting errors, and a net violation to get to within 24-23. But Cernich had one last kill in the set, a hard shot from the back row that gave the Antelopes the first set.
“She’s incredible,” Waynesburg coach Dan Higinbotham said of Cernich. “I think the first three games every time she touched the ball, she scored. We had a scheme, but it’s just tough to stop her because she’s so good. Plus she’s 6-foot-1 and that helps.”
Junior middle hitter Linnea Zmuda sparked Avonworth early in the second set. She had two kills and a block to help the Antelopes establish a 9-6 lead.
Waynesburg battled back to get it to 14-13 with a couple kills by Emily Rafferty, but then things unraveled for the Raiders.
Avonworth went on an 11-0 run to close out a 25-13 win to take command of the match.
Cernich had five kills in the set and Ali Colasante served 12 straight points and had five aces.
Cernich said she felt her team did a good job adjusting to Waynesburg and that they were a different team than they faced last year.
“They lost one of their setters and their outside Ani Cree (to graduation), so we had to adjust to who they had on the court, but have that same mentality of ‘we want this’ and ‘we can do this’,” Cernich said.
Waynesburg found its footing in the third set. The Raiders took the lead 7-6 and never trailed again on their way to a 25-16 win.
Railey Bochna had a huge set for the Raiders with six kills and an ace.
Harper Grimes contributed a couple of blocks and kills each and Avonworth committed five hitting errors.
“We just told the girls that they had nothing to lose and to go play,” Higinbotham said. “I did change the rotation one spot to try and help a little bit, but that was all the girls. They just played hard.”
The Raiders were hoping to pull a reverse of what happened last year and win three consecutive sets, but fell behind 8-1 in the fourth set and couldn’t climb out of the hole.
They got to within two points on two occasions, but, fittingly enough, Cernich had the match clinching kill as Avonworth won the fourth set 25-22.
“Their coach (John Skarupa) does a great job,” Higinbotham said. “Everything we did they were ready for.”