North Allegheny, Freeport & Bishop Canevin Win WPIAL Girls Volleyball Gold

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, November 2, 2013 | 11:02 PM

All three top seeds made it to the WPIAL girls volleyball championship finals Saturday at Chartiers Valley High School while a pair of #2-seeds were joined by a #7-seed in the title match thrills. While Bishop Canevin needed five games to knock out the defending champion Greensburg Central Catholic in Class A, Freeport and North Allegheny needed only the minimum three games to add to their golden collection. Here are the recaps from all three title matches.

AAA Finals:  North Allegheny Tigers 3 – Bethel Park Black Hawks 0

North Allegheny won its first WPIAL championship since 2008 as the Lady Tigers topped the Bethel Park Black Hawks on Saturday night with a 3-0 victory in the Class AAA Girls’ Volleyball Finals.  They Lady Tigers and Black Hawks battled nip and tuck throughout the night, but NA garnered the victory behind set scores of 25-21, 25-21 and 25-22.  In the first two sets, NA and Bethel Park matched each other point-for-point before the Lady Tigers took hold in the later stages.  Thanks in large part to the play of Notre Dame recruit Meg Morningstar, North Allegheny was able to prevail in both sets for a 2-0 match lead.  Morningstar finished with an unofficial eight kills and four blocks.  In set three, NA opened up a 19-12 lead before the Black Hawks rallied back behind the blocks and kills of Samantha Simpson.  The senior collected two kills and a pair of blocks to trim the deficit to 21-20. Also having a big night for Bethel Park was Stacey Kazalas with an unofficial 13 kills. As they did in the first two sets, the Lady Tigers took control late thanks to a block by Daniele Wall and a kill by Ashley Leto for a 24-22 lead.  A service error by Bethel Park closed out the set and the match as top-ranked Lady Tigers left Chartiers Valley High School as champions.  North Allegheny improves to 19-0 overall and will face the District 6 champion State College Little Lions on Tuesday night in the opening round of the PIAA playoffs.

AA Finals:  Freeport Yellowjackets 3 – Indiana Little Indians 0

At Chartiers Valley High school in the girls AA Volleyball championships, the Freeport Yellow Jackets win their 2nd title in 4 years 3-0 over the Indiana Little Indians. Game scores were 25-22, 25-22,25-23. Freeport, an MSA Sports Hometown Volleyball Program team was led by Sophomore Zoe Pawlak with 24 kills on the night. The Indians simply could not stop her. Her performance was a highlight reel on offense, abs tremendous serving.In all three games the scores were close. Neither team would go up by more than 3 points. As one team would trail by a few, they would play great defense and score 4 straight to go up by a few. This was the theme of the night. Two solid teams each with two tremendous front line scorerers.  The Yellowjackets with Pawlak and Senior Alexis Schrekengost, the Indians with 2 Seniors, Natalie Cignetti, and Aaryn Gray. All four are solid defensively and can change a game at the net on offense. Cignetti finished with 20 kills on the night for Indians. In game one Indiana had a 2 point lead at 19-17 but Freeport led by two big Pawlak kills scored 8 of the last 11 points to win 25-22. In game 2 it was a carbon copy of game one. Each team seemingly having the other on the ropes, but coming back to lead. The Jackets were up 10-4 and threatening a runaway but Indiana went on a 10-3 run to lead 14-13. From there it was a battle as they would tie 5 times and change leads 5 times. At 20-19 Indians, Pawlak took over getting a kill and an ace serve as the Jackets would score 6 of the last 7 points to win 25-21. Game three was another battle as they would tie  17 times and no team would have more than a 2 point lead. Tied at 22-22 Pawlak again would get two kills of the final three points as Freeport would win 25-23. Indiana loses their first match and falls to 17-1 and will start the PIAA state playoffs next Tuesday night as the second seed from the WPIAL.  The Yellowjackets win their 2nd WPIAL title in 4 years. They previously won the title in 2010, and have been to the championship game 4 of the last 5 years. The Yellow Jackets will head to the PIAA state playoffs as the top team from the WPIAL In AA. Freeport is led by a tremendous Senior class. Brittany Bianco at Libero, Megan Sweeny at OH, Emily Toy as setter, Amanda Hewitt as OH, and Schrecengost as team leader, OH, and the strength of the back court on defense.

A Finals:  Bishop Canevin Crusaders 3 – Greensburg Central Catholic Centurions 2

The Bishop Canevin Crusaders had almost exactly one calendar to exact revenge on the Greensburg Central Catholic Centurions for losing the WPIAL Class A Girls' Volleyball Championship Match.  Both teams made it back to the finals with 3-0 wins in each round over their playoff adversaries to set up the 2013 Championship match at Chartiers Valley High School.  The top-seeded Crusaders set tone right from the get-go with an 8-0 run midway through Game 1 en route to a 25-17 victory.  Games 2 and 3 had by and large the same storyline as both the Crusaders and the Centurions kept within close proximity of each other on the scoreboard, and in both games, BC had the lead, but were not able to seal the deal in either one .  In Game 2, the Crusdaers were up 23-20, but the Centurions scored the last 5 points to even the match at a game apiece, 25-23.  Game 3 saw BC up 22-20, but GCC outscored the Crusaders 5-1 in the last 6 points to take the win, 25-23, and a 2-1 lead in the match.  BC Head Coach Kevin Walters used the break to calm his players down and help them refocus, and the Crusaders responded in a huge way as they regained the dominance they showed in Game 1 by gaining an early 9-0 run on the serve of senior Ashley Grimm.  They never looked back as the evened the match at 2 games apiece with a 25-13 victory.  The 5th and deciding game took on a seesaw type of scenario with both teams exchanging the leadat least twice, but in the end BC went on a 5-0 run to win the game, 15-9, the match 3-2, and their first-ever WPIAL Girls' Volleyball Championship.  Both the Crusaders' and the Centurions' seasons will continue, however, as both teams along with Our Lady of the Sacred Heart and Neshannock have qualified for the PIAA State Playoffs by virtue of making the semifinals of the Class A Tournament.

Tags: Bethel Park, Bishop Canevin, Freeport, Greensburg C.C., Indiana