Gallant Frazier falls to OLSH in final
McMURRAY — Frazier’s girls volleyball team knew what it was up against on Saturday.
The third-seeded Lady Commodores were taking on top-seeded Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, a much taller, talented squad that had already handed them a loss during the regular season, in the WPIAL Class A final at Peters Township High School’s AHN Arena.
Frazier fought valiantly and actually rallied from five points down to take the first set, but the Lady Chargers eventually settled in to claim their first district championship by scores of 20-25, 25-16, 25-15 and 25-19. They were making their second finals appearance.
“They’re just a really good volleyball team,” said Frazier coach Mandy Hartman, whose team was making its fifth trip to the championship match and seeking its third title. “OLSH has so much height and it’s hard to play against.”
Frazier, which moved up from Class A this season, had to battle its way past sixth-seeded Beth-Center in four sets in the quarterfinals and second-seeded Fort Cherry, another team that had defeated it in the regular season, in the five sets in the semifinals to earn its spot on the championship stage.
“We moved up from 1A, they moved down from 3A,” Hartman noted. “They have a lot more experience, they’ve played at this level longer than our girls and I think that was a big factor.”
Allie Monack led Frazier with 15 kills and six assists.
“It’s a big jump from 1A to 2A.” said Monack, one of five Frazier seniors along with Mia West, Grace Polkabla, Addison Hiles and Lola Marish. “We were definitely underdogs coming into this. I’m really proud that we made it here. There are a lot of other teams that would love to be where we ended up.”
OLSH (18-2) hadn’t dropped a set in the postseason until the Lady Commodores’ surprising comeback win in the opener despite both teams struggling early on.
The Lady Commodores trailed 8-3 and 12-7 before storming back. A five-point run, which featured a pair of service aces by Hiles and a deft, touch kill by Monack, gave Frazier a 16-15 lead and it never trailed again.
The Lady Chargers tied at 16-16 but Frazier answered with an 8-2 run that included kills by Morgan Fisher, Monack and West and a service ace by Monack to take a 24-18 advantage and won the set 25-20.
“For as poorly as we played and we came out with a win in the first set, I was feeling good about things,” Hartman said. “But then I think the nerves were going both ways and they settled down, too.”
OLSH dominated the next two sets in going up 2-1. It led by as much as 10 in the second set, which finished with a kill, and 11 in the third set.
“They served so aggressively,” Hartman said. “They took our offense completely out of the match. We had no answer for their middles. They were getting to balls and dominated us at the net.”
“They’re the tallest team we’ve played, by far,” Monack said.
The Lady Chargers again took control early on in the fourth set and built an 11-point lead.
Frazier pulled together and made one last push to try to extend the match, ringing up seven consecutive points to get within 22-18, forcing OLSH coach Mike McDonald to use two timeouts during the run.
A deflected ball fell in for the Lady Chargers to snap the streak and they won two of the next three points with a kill by Macie Trombetta ending the match.
“I was really proud of how we fought back even though we were down,” Monack said.
Frankie Schlatterer led the way for OLSH with 16 kills and 11 blocks. Coladonato and Trombetta added 10 and nine kills, respectively.
“This isn’t the way we wanted it to happen but we have a medal and we’re still playing,” said Hartman, whose team will begin PIAA play Wednesday with the site, time and opponent to be determined. “So we’re going to get back to work on Monday.”
Fisher totaled 10 assists and six kills for Frazier, which also got 17 digs from Hiles and 11 service points and two blocks from West.
“I’m proud of my girls,” Hartman said. “I never thought we’d be here back in August.”