Montour survives injuries to claim 2A championship
North Allegheny wins 3A title with a five-set win over Seneca Valley
The Montour High School boys volleyball team had three players go down with injuries during Wednesday’s WPIAL Class 2A title match against Our Lady of the Sacred Heart at at the UPMC Events Center on the campus of Robert Morris University.
All three returned at different points in the match to help the No. 3 seeded Spartans pull a 3-2 upset of the top-seeded Chargers.
“We went so deep into our bench this match and everybody delivered, just as we have asked them to do all year,” Montour coach Colin Vitale said. “Every single kid on our bench played a part in tonight’s win.”
Montour (12-5) was making its sixth appearance in the final, its first since 2011, and claimed its fourth title. Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (18-2) was making its first appearance in a title match. Montour’s victory avenged two regular season losses to OLSH in Section 1.
“OLSH is a fantastic team and they pulled it over on us twice in the regular season, but we were able to win the one that matters most the most.” Vitale said.
OLSH held a narrow lead most of the first set until Montour tied the score, 2020. The Spartans scored six of the next 10 points to pull out a 26-24 victory. Outside hitter Andrew Feeley led Montour with five kills.
Feeley suffered a shoulder injury in the second set and sat out until OLSH increased its lead from 5-3 to 13-9.
“I went down twice, our setter went down once, and our middle went down once, but we were able to keep our composure and keep our energy ergy up,” said Feeley, referring to setter Nick Zezza and middle hitter Bryce Lizanich.
When Feeley returned, Montour rallied to take a 1514 advantage, but the lead was short lived as the Spartans committed four consecutive unforced errors. The Chargers took over from that point and posted a 25-19 win. Outside hitter Colin Wiegand led the way with six kills.
OLSH got its offense in gear in the third set and dominated Montour, 25-15, with Wiegand recording five kills.
It looked as if OLSH would close out the match in
the fourth set when the Chargers jumped out to a 7-2 advantage. The Spartans rallied to tie the set at 7-7 and eventually posted a 26-24 win, thus forcing a fifth set. Lizanich led the Spartans with five kills.
“We had a chance to win it in set four, but got blocked twice,” said OLSH coach Mike McDonald, referring to the Chargers’ 24-23 lead. “If we don’t get blocked on those two points, we win. You have to make the plays in that situation and we didn’t.”
Montour jumped out to a 4-2 advantage in the fifth set, but suffered another loss when Zezza went down with an ankle injury. OLSH rallied to tie the set at 5-5 and it remained tied until Zezza returned with the score at 9-9.
Montour responded with five of the next six points to pull out a 15-10 win and claim the title.
“It’s amazing. We worked our butts off all year and this was our goal,” said Lizanich “It’s a great feeling.”
Class 3A
The Class 3A final also matched two teams from the samesection. Top-seed Seneca Valley and No. 2 seed North Allegheny tied for the Section 2 title after splitting two section matches. The title match was the rubber match and North Allegheny pulled out a 3-2 win.
North Allegheny rallied from a 10-6 deficit to pull out a 25-23 win in the first set. Seneca Valley evened the match at 1-1 with a 25-21 win in the second set with outside hitter Nathan DeGraaf recording kills on two of the final three points for the Raiders.
Seneca Valley’s momentum carried over to the third set as the Raiders posted a 2522 to put the defending champions on the brink of elimination.
However, North Allegheny was far from done. The Tigers jumped out to a 19-10 advantage and held on for a 25-17 win, with setter Caleb Schall recording the winning kill, to force a fifth set.
The two-hour marathon ended with North Allegheny rallying from a 10-7 deficit to pull out a 21-19 win in the fifth set.
North Allegheny was making its 20th title appearance and claimed its 22nd title, the most of any program. Seneca Valley was making its fourth appearance in a title match and placed second for the fourth time.