North Allegheny, Beaver, North Catholic, Bishop Canevin earn top seeds for WPIAL girls volleyball playoffs

By: Michael Love
Monday, October 26, 2020 | 2:13 PM

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North Allegheny, Beaver, North Catholic and Bishop Canevin were selected as top seeds as the WPIAL girls volleyball committee finalized and released the playoff brackets Monday afternoon.

The playoff tournaments begin Tuesday with four preliminary-round matches in both Class 3A and Class 2A. First-round matches Wednesday kick off the tournaments in Class 4A and Class A.

Bishop Canevin in Class A and Canon-McMillan in Class 4A both will attempt to defend WPIAL championships.

Bishop Canevin, the Section 3 champion at 10-0, owns the past three WPIAL Class A titles. The Crusaders host Mapletown at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Canon-McMillan is the No. 10 seed in the Class 4A tournament. The Big Macs finished third in Section 2 behind champion Moon and runner-up Bethel Park.

North Allegheny fell to Canon-McMillan in last year’s WPIAL Class 4A final, but the Tigers rebounded to top District 1’s Bishop Shanahan for the PIAA championship.

The Tigers, as the No. 1 seed in Class 4A, earn a bye into Saturday’s quarterfinals and will face the winner of No. 8 Seneca Valley and No. 9 Latrobe.

There will be new WPIAL champions crowned in the Class 3A and Class 2A.

Knoch, the Class 3A champion the past three years, didn’t qualify for the playoffs this year. Freeport, last year’s Class 2A champion, moved up to Class 3A.

The Yellowjackets, seven-time WPIAL champions, finished in a four-way tie for first in Section 5-3A with Hampton, Mars and Armstrong. All four teams ended with 9-3 records.

Beaver finished Section 4-3A undefeated at 12-0. As the top seed in the Class 3A bracket, the Bobcats will face the winner of No. 8 Mars and No. 9 Hopewell in Monday’s quarterfinals.

North Catholic, the top seed in the Class 2A bracket, fell to Freeport in a five-set thriller in last year’s Class 2A title match. The Trojanettes will host the winner of No. 8 Shenango and No. 9 Carmichaels in the quarterfinals Monday.

Norwin and Quaker Valley both qualified for the playoffs but will not be able to participate because of covid-19 issues. That made room for Hempfield and Carlynton, fifth-place finishers in their respective sections, to compete in the WPIAL postseason.

All four championship matches are set for Nov. 7.

Fox Chapel will host the Class A and 2A finals at noon and 3 p.m., respectively. Chartiers Valley will be the setting for the Class 3A (1:30 p.m.) and Class 4A (5 p.m.) title contests.

TribLive HSSN will have livestream coverage of all four championship matches.

Because of covid-19 safety precautions and logistics, the PIAA last month set the state-tournament brackets to feature only the district champions.

Click here to see complete WPIAL brackets.

Check out the Trib HSSN WPIAL Girls Volleyball Playoff Pairings Show archive broadcast.

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

Tags: Beaver, Bishop Canevin, North Allegheny, North Catholic