Lady Crusaders celebrate bringing state volleyball title
Two weeks to the day of the state championship parade for the Elk County Catholic High School girls' cross country team, the sound of sirens once again echoed throughout the downtown area as emergency responders escorted the Lady Crusader volleyball home following their 3-0 sweep of West Branch in the PIAA 1A Girls' Volleyball Championship at Cumberland Valley High School in Mechanicsburg.
Family, friends, fellow students and teachers, and members of the community gathered at ECC to greet the team upon their arrival around 6 p.m., and a brief celebration was held in the school's auditorium.
Elk County Catholic High School Athletic Director Aaron Straub opened the ceremony by joking that ECC is getting a bit of practice celebrating state championships with two teams winning titles two weeks apart.
Elk County Catholic High School Principal John Schneider echoed that sentiment later in the program after accepting the state championship trophy from members of the team, remarking that they were “a little better at this than (they) were two weeks ago.”
Schneider also remarked that successful seasons such as the ones experienced this year are not accidents and do not happen due to luck.
“There's a great deal of time, energy, effort, preparation, and sacrifice that goes into making a successful program and a successful season,” Schneider said.
Schneider noted that during events such as ECC's recent fall sports awards program, they heard gratitude expressed to all those behind the scenes who make accomplishments like winning a state title possible. This includes sacrifices by coaches' spouses and other family members, and players giving up things that they might want to do in order to attend practices and better themselves.
Lady Crusader volleyball head coach Tricia Bauer shared that the members of her squad put in the time and effort to be successful both on and off of the court during the fall sports season.
“Not only did they finish the season 21-0, but they only lost three sets the whole time. They lost one from the time the district playoffs started to the state championship – they lost one set that whole time – and they swept the number one team in the state to become the number one team in the state,” Bauer said. “But on top of that, the majority of these girls standing up here were on the honor roll doing all of this.”
Straub, who coached an undefeated state champion team of his own in boys' basketball in 2006, also commented on Bauer accomplishing the feat as he reflected on the improvement that he saw the volleyball team make throughout their season.
“Being undefeated, what an accomplishment that is,” Straub said. “If you watched the team grow each game, each set, each match, and then in the district playoffs, and then in the inter-district playoffs, to step it up the way they did, you just could see the progress. You could see the team come together, and that is a credit to all the team members and especially our coaches.”
Saturday's game was the third trip to the state championship game for the Lady Crusader volleyball team. ECC finished as the state runner-up in back-to-back seasons in 1985 and 1986. Straub noted that two members of those teams were present during Saturday's celebration – Vicki (Meyer) Struble, who is a current assistant coach of the Lady Crusader volleyball team, and Julie (Schlimm) Newton, who is the mother of current team members Tori and Payton Newton.
“(There is) a little bit of history in our auditorium, and that's pretty neat stuff,” Straub said.
Straub also acknowledged “the Voice of the Crusaders,” Gary Mitchell from area radio station The River 98.9, who was in attendance and also did a live broadcast from the state championship game earlier in the day. Straub had a recording of Mitchell's reaction to ECC earning the final point and securing the state title that he played for those in attendance.
Also recognized were the area emergency responders who made the parade possible to welcome the team home following the game, and Straub asked those in attendance to share their gratitude with members of those agencies.
“That's a wonderful celebration to have our community welcome the girls back after their accomplishments,” Straub said.
The celebration also featured senior members of the team speaking briefly on behalf of the entire squad to express their appreciation to their fans, parents, and coaches; a few words by assistant coach Rick Fox; and an opening prayer by Fr. Kevin Holland.
As the ceremony drew to a close, Straub offered a few final thoughts on the volleyball team's accomplishments this season.
“There's an old sports adage that says, ‘Good teams have good players, and great teams have great teammates.' I really believe that these girls here really turned into being great teammates to one another – and they were pretty good players too,” Straub said.
Making up the 2023 state champion Lady Crusaders volleyball team were seniors Kiri Emmert, Isabella Macer, Reagan Bauer, Lucy Klawuhn, Laci Jovenitti, and Tori Newton; juniors Andrea Baron, Alexa Chamberlin, Mya Pistner, and Ashlynn Schutz; and sophomores Payton Newton, Lena Polaski, Sofiya Cherry, Rachel Vanslander, and Brynn Allison. Statisticians were Cassidy Cunningham, Josie Smith, Bailey Thorwart, and Samantha Neubert. The head coach was Tricia Bauer, and assistant coaches were Jill Kaul, Vicki Struble, Kelsey Morey, and Rick Fox.