North Allegheny sweeps Armstrong for 5th WPIAL girls volleyball crown

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, November 4, 2017 | 9:00 PM

From the first week of the season through Saturday's Class AAAA girls volleyball finals, North Allegheny was atop the Western Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association rankings, and the Tigers showed why they were voted the best team week after week.

If it wasn't Kayla Dinkins in the middle getting a kill, it was Avery Tuman, Mika Logan or Paige Miller connecting from the outside.

The versatility in having so many weapons helped the top-seeded Tigers sweep No. 2 Armstrong, 3-0, for their first title in four years Saturday at Baldwin.

After suffering losses to Baldwin in the finals two years ago and the quarterfinals last year, The Tigers' senior class led by Dinkins and Logan broke through for their first championship as a unit. It's the fifth title for the North Allegheny program.

“This is by far the most special team I've coached, because they are not only talented, but they work every day and they've had a drive to do this since Day 1,” North Allegheny coach Heidi Miller said. “Our seniors had one more shot to do this, and I'm glad we were able to do this for them.”

North Allegheny led 18-10 in the first set, only to see the River Hawks rally behind kills from Kenzie Lasher and Lauren Crytzer. Armstrong took a 25-24 lead on a Crytzer kill, but the Tigers scored three straight points, including a Logan kill that clinched a 27-25 victory.

North Allegheny showed off its versatility in the second set with Miller, Tuman, Dinkins and Logan all getting multiple kills in a 25-15 win. Dinkins finished with 10 kills. Tuman, Miller and Logan finished with eight kills apiece.

“We can swing out of every position and one night someone could lead us in kills, then it could be someone different each of the next five nights,” Miller said. “When we pass well, we are very hard to defend against, because it's really hard to stop so many different people from scoring. I give our back row players credit too, because not only is our front line skilled, but we also have weapons in the back row and the service line, too.”

The third set went back and forth until North Allegheny scored five out of six points in the middle of the set to push its lead to 21-16. Tuman had two kills and Armstrong made a pair of hitting errors to finish out the set and give the Tigers a 25-18 win.

Lasher led Armstrong with 11 kills and 25 digs. Loryn Bowser had five kills and 12 digs.

“I'm really happy our kids made it this far and got to experience this,” Armstrong coach Andrea Lasher said. “They had a lot of determination to get here. Yeah, we wanted gold. I mean everybody wants gold when you get this far, but our girls belonged on this floor. They worked hard and deserved to be here, and we're happy with that.”

Both teams advanced to the PIAA tournament, which begins Tuesday. Seneca Valley swept Hempfield in the consolation match and also moved on.

Jerin Steele is a freelance writer.

Tags: Armstrong, North Allegheny