Penn-Trafford boys volleyball drops State College to set up rematch with North Allegheny

By: Luke Brown
Tuesday, June 3, 2025 | 8:50 PM

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STATE COLLEGE — Penn-Trafford’s run through the PIAA boys volleyball playoffs continued Tuesday evening in State College, as the Warriors defeated the Little Lions in straight sets to advance into Saturday’s quarterfinal round.

“They were tough,” Penn-Trafford coach Jim Schall said. “They were without their big hitter, and he probably, of course, would have made a difference there.”

Schall was referring to State College’s Carter Weight, a senior heading to Ohio State next year. Weight has dealt with a back injury this season, and that had him sidelined for his final game as a Little Lion.

The Warriors got rolling early, starting with a 4-0 lead in the opening set. State College started to storm back and tied it 4-4. Then the Warriors got hot again, scored six straight and forced State College coach Larry Campbell to call a timeout.

State College got on a 5-0 run in the middle of the set, making it 15-13. Back-to-back service aces from Connor Evangeliste made a big difference for the Warriors, earning their 23rd and 24th points of the set, opening the door to earn just one more and grab a 1-0 lead in the match, which they did.

Scores were deadlocked at 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 in the middle set before Penn-Trafford went on a six-point run to get ahead 12-8.

State College’s Derrick Campbell had a big kill late in the set to cut P-T’s lead to 24-21, but the Warriors won the very next point for a middle-set victory, pinning State College’s back to the wall for the rest of the match.

The Little Lions started off the last set with two points back-to-back, and that’s fitting because State College showed the most fight in that third and final set.

“They played very good defense,” Schall said. “They made some errors in a few spots there. So, in each of the games, we were able to have some good runs of points.”

Penn-Trafford rallied from the 2-0 deficit to tie it 3-3 and took a 5-4 lead it never surrendered.

An impressive tip over the net from Nathaniel Rugh came late in the set to give the Warriors a 22-16 lead and rallied a solid crowd of people who made the two-hour drive to State College High School.

Surely Penn-Trafford fans are hoping to come back to the college town in 11 days for the PIAA Class 3A championships, held at Rec Hall, which is only six minutes from the site of Tuesday evening’s game.

To do that, the Warriors need to get through one of the state’s top teams in North Allegheny, the WPIAL champ that beat Penn-Trafford, 3-0, on April 16. It’s a program Schall and the Warriors know well, with battles in the regular season and preseason scrimmages.

“Well, we’ll have to do a little better,” Schall said. “We’ve got to put some balls away in a few spots. We had a good bit of time where we didn’t play, so I felt like in a few spots, we were a little rusty, so I think we’ll be ready.”

Tags: Penn-Trafford