North Allegheny faces adversity, rallies past North Catholic to repeat as WPIAL 4A volleyball champs

By: Andrew John
Saturday, November 2, 2024 | 9:13 PM

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After dropping the opening set, North Allegheny found itself on the verge of losing the second set to North Catholic in the WPIAL Class 4A girls volleyball championship match Saturday at Peters Township.

However, the Tigers scratched and clawed through multiple set points to take the set and won in four sets to repeat as WPIAL champions.

No. 1 North Allegheny (17-1) won the 10th WPIAL title in program history with the 3-1 victory over No. 3 North Catholic (16-3).

“I’m really proud of us. We lost 10 seniors. I know this year’s senior class has taken a lot of ownership to keep things rolling,” North Allegheny coach Russ Hoburg said.

The Tigers have now won six titles since 2017. The Tigers won back-to-back titles for the third time during that span with championships coming in 2017 and 2018 as well as 2020 and 2021.

Molly Robertson led the Tigers with 22 kills. Keely McMahon-Regan had 25 assists, 17 digs and two service aces. Mac Jones had 17 assists and 11 digs. Macey Casten led the Tigers with 27 digs and Reagan Riordan had 17 digs.

Ella Koziara led the Trojans with 22 kills and 14 digs. Sienna Cozza had 35 assists and 25 digs. Audra Lazzarra had 14 kills, Rebecca Feczko had 14 digs and Kaitlyn Maziarz had 11 digs.

In the opening set, the Trojans opened up a lead after winning five points in a row to make it 23-16. The Tigers responded by winning seven of the next eight points before North Catholic won the set, 25-23, on a service error.

North Catholic jumped out a 15-10 lead in the second set before North Allegheny tied it up at 17 and eventually took a 19-17 lead. As the teams continued to battle back and forth, North Catholic found itself on the brink of winning the second set seven times. The Tigers eventually won the set 33-31 on a McMahon-Regan service ace.

“It sucked a lot of momentum out of us, but that’s the game,” North Catholic coach Amanda Fetter said. “Somebody once said to me it’s never fun being on the other side of the confetti. It never is. I can tell you that’s 100 percent true. They are a really good team. Hats off to them. We respect them. We actually have a good relationship with them,”

The Tigers took the momentum of winning the marathon second set into the third by jumping out to a 10-3 lead. North Catholic cut the deficit to two points at 15-13, but the Tigers held off the Trojans to win the set 25-17.

“Momentum is huge in volleyball. North Catholic is a very talented team, so it was really huge to keep momentum on our side,” Hoburg said.

“This group never quits. We didn’t play our best in the first set, but we came back out ready to roll in the second. We are a scrappy defensive team. We changed our lineup in the second set and the people who were called upon came in and did a great job.”

North Catholic’s Josie Lorish had six service aces in the match, with three each in the second and third sets.

In the fourth and final set, the Tigers won five points in a row to take a 12-9 lead and won six of the last seven points to win the set 25-23 with Anna Bridges winning the title for the Tigers on a service ace.

North Catholic had 36 attack errors on the night. North Allegheny had 12 service errors, while North Catholic had seven.

The Trojans, who won three straight titles from 2020-22, moved up to Class 4A this season. They made it to the finals for the seventh season in a row. They lost in straight sets to Hampton last season.

North Allegheny will play Manheim Township, the District 3 fourth-place finisher, in the PIAA first round Tuesday. North Catholic plays the District 6, 8 or 10 champion.

“For us, we need to get back in the gym on Monday and get our confidence and rhythm back. We had it coming in but we lost it in set two. That set was pivotal,” Fetter said.

Tags: North Allegheny, North Catholic