Freeport rebounds to sweep Redbank Valley in first round of PIAA playoffs

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, November 6, 2018 | 7:36 PM

The Freeport girls volleyball team kept its goal of a second straight state championship alive Tuesday as it took down District 9 champion Redbank Valley in the first round of the PIAA Class AA playoffs.

The Yellowjackets opened sizeable leads in each game and claimed a 3-0 victory at DuBois High School.

“We talked about being the most relaxed team on the court, and the one who is most relaxed is going to be the one who comes out on top,” junior outside hitter Lauren Lampus said. “We just came out and played the way we know we can and were able to get the win.”

Freeport scored wins of 25-12, 25-10 and 25-15 in a match that took exactly 60 minutes to complete.

The Yellowjackets’ victory was five days removed from their upset loss to Frazier in the WPIAL semifinals.

“Playing well as a team and being motivated after the loss really helped us come back strong,” said Freeport junior middle hitter Isabella Russo, who led a strong game at the net, along with the likes of Lampus, senior middle hitter Haley Graham and senior opposite Ally DeJidas.

“We were going really hard in practice and pushing ourselves,” Russo said. “We knew we had to work hard to come back and get this win.”

Freeport, in the PIAA tournament for the sixth straight season, made the nearly two-hour trek home with the knowledge that it will participate in the state quarterfinals for the fourth time in the past six seasons.

The Yellowjackets, the fourth seed from the WPIAL, will take on WPIAL champion North Catholic on Saturday at a site and time to be determined.

“We’re moving on to the next round. We got the first state playoff game in the books, and we have a chance to play again,” Freeport coach Tom Phillips said.

Redbank Valley, which had won 17 straight since a loss in its season opener, concludes its season at 17-2. The Bulldogs also suffered a first-round exit from the state tournament in 2016 when they fell in straight sets to Beaver.

“(Freeport was) just a better team than us tonight,” Redbank Valley coach Matt Darr said. “We could give 20 reasons why, but they just outplayed us. They are so much bigger than us, and we don’t see a lot of that during the season. They are the defending state champs for a reason.”

Redbank Valley played without one of its top offensive players, senior outside hitter Josie Rupp, who missed her second straight game after violating a team/school rule.

Freeport 6-foot-3 senior middle hitter Sarah Hettich was not able to play Tuesday as she continues to battle back from a foot injury.

Junior Mackensey Jack got Freeport off and running Tuesday as she delivered the first point of Game 1 on a kill. She proceeded to serve the Yellowjackets on a run to a 9-0 lead.

Freeport had an answer for every Redbank Valley rally. The Yellowjackets built leads of 7-2 and 11-3 in Game 2 and jumped ahead 7-1 in Game 3.

Graham put the exclamation point on the victory with a forceful kill on match point.

“We were really aggressive from the service line tonight,” Phillips said. “We put a lot of pressure on Redbank in terms of passing the ball. They have really good players on that side. I think we just kept them out of system for most of the match and kept them off balance. We stayed on the throttle, and that served us well.”

Phillips said he was impressed with the balance on the stat sheet and the efforts of freshman libero Erica Lampus and junior setter Madeline Clark.

“In several big wins this year, we had that balance offensively and defensively, and we had that tonight,” Phillips said. “It makes it hard for a team to attack any spot on the floor.”

Michael Love is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Michael at 412-388-5825, mlove@tribweb.com or via Twitter @MLove_Trib.

Tags: Freeport