Frazier puts away scrappy St. Joseph to reach WPIAL Class A volleyball finals

By: Liam Belan
Tuesday, October 29, 2024 | 9:01 PM

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It was a known commodity versus a new challenger Tuesday evening when No. 1 Frazier took on No. 4 St. Joseph in the WPIAL Class A volleyball semifinals, and it was the Commodores who punched their ticket to Saturday’s championship for the second time in three years with a 3-1 win.

The Commodores (13-3) were led by the likes of Grace Vaughn, Addison Schultz, Allie Monack, Madelyn Salisbury and Gracen Hartman among others. Coach Mandy Hartman felt that her team was a bit flustered moving to a venue like AHN Arena at Peters Township after winning two home playoff matches, but she also gave plenty of credit to St. Joseph.

“I think we were nervous. I’m not gonna lie and say we weren’t,” Hartman said. “It’s a bigger stage. Whenever you have two home playoff games and this is the first time you’re traveling and you come to this venue, for kids who haven’t been in this position, I can see where it could be very tough. So, they get some free passes tonight to get it out of our system so that we’ll be ready on Saturday.

“But we have to give St. Joseph a lot of credit. They’re a scrappy team. They’re clearly very defensive oriented. I mean, some of the balls that they passed were quite impressive. They’re a good team.”

The Spartans (15-4) were the first team to take a set from Frazier during the postseason. Kate Giannetta led her squad with 11 kills and added three service points while Mackenzi Jones racked up seven kills and Veronica McCarthy had six.

This St. Joseph team is the first to win a section title and a playoff game, so expectations were exceeded long ago.

“Our mantra this year is ‘lead with love,’ so love for the game and love for each other,” St. Joseph coach Ann McCarthy said. “We might not be the best athletes on the floor, but we’re always gonna have the most heart, or at least that’s what we strive to do. They played with heart today.

“Our school is 110 years old. We’ve never won a section, but we put a banner up this year (as winners of Section 1-A). We’ve never won a playoff game before, and we won two this year. I don’t think many people have even taken a set from Frazier, and I have a young team, so I’m beyond happy.”

In the first set, both squads traded points until the score sat at 23-21 Frazier. From there, an attempted kill from Jones was stuffed by Madelyn Salisbury to make it set point and force the second timeout from St. Joseph. Out of the break, Frazier was unable to return the ball and gave the Spartans one more point, but Jones had a service error that gave the Commodores the first set at 25-22.

In the second set, St. Joseph got out to a 2-0 lead on a Giannetta ace and led throughout. Frazier battled back to make it a 17-16 deficit, but Jones came up with a much-needed kill for the Spartans to start a mini-run that forced a timeout from the Commodores. The Spartans claimed the set 25-23.

Frazier went on a 10-0 run to win the third set 25-9, and it extended to 14-0 in the fourth game as the victors went up 4-0 before St. Joseph got on the board.

At 12-9, Jillian Bloch had two improbable digs and the Spartans won the point before a Jones kill and a Giannetta kill ignited the St. Joseph contingent and tied it at 12-12.

But Bloch hit her ensuing serve into the net and Vaughn posted three straight service points from there to take advantage of the mistake and open up another lead. Salisbury had a kill and Monack had a kill to make it a 6-0 run.

Hartman assisted another kill from Vaughn to end the third set at 25-20, and the match at 3-1 in favor of the Commodores.

Moving forward, both squads are still alive as Frazier will take on the winner of No. 2 Eden Christian and No. 3 Greensburg Central Catholic while St. Joseph will take on the loser for a spot in the state playoffs. The Spartans will play in the consolation match at 6 p.m. Thursday at North Allegheny.

Tags: Frazier, St. Joseph