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Greensburg Central Catholic rallies past Linville Hill to claim 3rd PIAA girls volleyball title

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Saturday, November 16, 2024 | 2:35 PM

SILVER SPRING TOWNSHIP — Trailing 2-1 in the state championship match, Greensburg Central Catholic found its game and took the final two sets to win its third PIAA girls volleyball title Saturday with a 3-2 victory over Linville Hill Christian School at Cumberland Valley High School.

Game scores were 22-25, 25-6, 19-25, 25-10 and 15-6.

“The kids knew what was at stake today,” GCC coach Erin Salas said. “We struggle with early games, but we knew if we found our game today, we would be OK. These kids didn’t want to lose. They are such good friends and have played together for so long. It was a total team effort. “

Linville Hill (22-3) had defeated Northern Cambria, Mountain View and Faith Christian to reach its first state final in volleyball.

Greensburg Central Catholic (21-3), the WPIAL champion, had beaten Clarion-Limestone, West Branch and Frazier to reach the PIAA Class A championship game.

The Centurions led the whole first game before Linville Hill finally tied the game at 21. The duo of Kailey Higgins and Desiree Smucker continually were able to tap just over the GCC blockers to cut the deficit and eventually take the lead. The Centurions also had a couple of errant hits long to aid the Warriors, who won the first game 25-22.

Linville Hill had a couple of lack-of-communication errors early in Game 2 and trailed 6-3. Eva Denis had a huge backline hit and Evelyn Viehl had a big block to spark the Centurions to a 9-3 lead.

They led 9-5 before going on a 15-1 run to take a 24-6 advantage. They won the set 25-6 on a Denis hit to even the match at 1-1.

The Centurions got excellent defense and spread the ball around to different hitters and got several key blocks from Maura Oslosky and Erin Grace to take the game.

The Warriors responded in Game 3 as they took an early lead and maintained it with solid play. Good blocking from Courtney Good and Kailey Higgens found some space for her dinks by dropping them along the net behind the blockers. Solid service and scrappy defense also helped the Warriors. The Centurions didn’t show the same consistency in play throughout the game.

Trailing 2-1, the Centurions needed to find that spark to win two games in a row or their season would end as runners-up in the state.

“We all talked about just needing to stay focused and play our game,” junior right-side hitter Ashlyn Black said. “It was the last chance for our seniors. We stayed over in a hotel last night and we struggle with early games. Today was no different. We finally got started and our team worked well together.”

They rolled through games 4 and 5 by scores of 25-10 and 15-6, jumping out to big leads and maintaining those advantages. Abigail Dei, Eva Denis, Evelyn Veihl, Grace, Brianna Evans and Black played key roles. The service of Dei, with runs of 6 to 8 points in each of the final two games were crucial.

“We are seniors, and we just needed to focus and settle down and do what we do best, spread the ball around and not make mistakes,” Denis said. “We were down 2-1 before so we knew what we had to do. So proud of our team for coming back.”

Added Salas: “I have coached these seniors for six years and the juniors for at least three years. They are such a good group of ladies. Linville Hill was a very scrappy team, and they deserved to win those two games. It could have gone either way.”

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