Greensburg Central Catholic fights off elimination, tops Eden Christian in WPIAL semifinals

By: Paul Schofield
Tuesday, October 29, 2024 | 10:56 PM

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The Greensburg Central Catholic girls volleyball team could have easily quit in Tuesday’s WPIAL Class A semifinals at AHN Arena at Peters Township.

But there was no quit in these Centurions.

After dropping the first two games of their best-of-five match to No. 2 Eden Christian, the No. 3 Centurions roared back for a dramatic 3-2 victory.

The win puts Greensburg Central Catholic (16-3) in the WPIAL finals against No. 1 ranked and Section 4 rival Frazier (15-3), which defeated St. Joseph, 3-1, in the other semifinal Tuesday. The championship match is 11 a.m. Saturday at Peters Township.

Eden Christian (20-3) and St. Joseph (17-4) will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday at North Allegheny for third place with a state playoff berth on the line.

“That was all the girls,” GCC coach Erin Salas said. “This has been their goal since they were freshmen to get back to the WPIAL championship.

“After losing Game 1, we went over to the corner and talked. I told the seniors it’s do or die time. Either we finish it now and we go back or we are done. So, this was on them, and they did a great job.”

Greensburg Central Catholic seemed to have Game 1 wrapped up, leading 24-19, but Eden Christian scored the final seven points for a 26-24 victory.

That momentum carried over in Game 2 as Eden Christian rolled to an easy 25-16 win.

But Greensburg Central Catholic roared back. The Centurions dominated Game 3, winning 25-18, and then won Game 4, 25-14, setting up the dramatic Game 5.

Leading the way to the 15-11 victory were senior Ava Denis and junior Ashlyn Black. Black had five kills and an ace, while Denis had four kills.

After the Centurions led 4-3, Black recorded an ace and Denis had consecutive kills to push the lead to 8-5.

Eden Christian, which split with GCC this season, was able to tie the score 9-9, but a Denis kill made it 10-9 and GCC’s pressure forced Eden Christian into mistakes. GCC led 12-11 when Black got a kill, Eden Christian mishit and Black had a kill to end the game.

“Ashlyn had a phenomenal game,” Salas said. “She has been a key part of our offense for the last three seasons. Now she’s adjusting into part of our defense. We had a lot of players step up.”

Black, unoffically, finished with 29 kills and Denis 14 kills.

Others stepping up to stymie Eden Christian’s attack included Ziola Giaramita, Evelyn Viehl, Erin Grace and Brianna Evans.

Eden Christian coach Jillian Zentko said she felt her players got away from playing as a team in Games 3 and 4.

“They bounced back well in Game 5, but it was a little too late,” Zentko said. “We did a good job defending them, and when we’re hitting the ball hard, we usually score points. Maybe we let up a little.

“All season we’ve been focusing on playing as a team and we lost a little bit of that focus. But there were some touches and some plays that just did not go in our favor, and it wasn’t in God’s will for us to win.”

Paul Schofield is a TribLive reporter covering high school and college sports and local golf. He joined the Trib in 1995 after spending 15 years at the Daily Courier in Connellsville, where he served as sports editor for 14 years. He can be reached at pschofield@triblive.com.

Tags: Eden Christian, Greensburg C.C.