North Catholic too much for Waynesburg
CRANBERRY TWP. – Waynesburg Central was new to the WPIAL volleyball semifinals.
North Catholic is quite familiar with that territory and showed the Raiders why its the No. 1 seed in Class 2A Wednesday night.
The Trojans overwhelmed Waynesburg, rolling to a three-set sweep by scores of 25-17, 25-11 and 25-17 at North Catholic High School.
“Sometimes you’ve just got to accept that the team is bigger, and maybe a little better,” Raiders coach Dan Higinbotham said. “North Catholic is a very strong team. But my girls gave it their all and I’m proud of them.
“We’ve come farther this year by two games than we ever have before.”
The Trojans advance to Saturday’s championship match at Fox Chapel High School against No. 2 Ellwood City.
North Catholic jumped out to an 8-3 lead in the first set, prompting Higinbotham to call a timeout. Waynesburg cut the gap to 11-7 but could get no closer and fell down 1-0.
The Trojans (14-0) completely dominated the second set in rolling to a 2-0 lead.
“The first game was nerves, and they even said that themselves,” Higinbotham said. “I thought when we settled down, because we got back into it at the end of the first game, we were going to come out in the second game a little different. But it did not turn out that way. So I just tried a different rotation.”
Waynesburg rebounded with a better showing in the third set but North Catholic gradually pulled away for an eight-point win to close out the match.
“My team hasn’t quit on me all year and they didn’t quit today,” Higinbotham said. “They just got overpowered a little bit.”
Emma Robinson led the fifth-seeded Raiders (13-2) in kills with just five as her team was on the defensive most of the match. She also had a team-high nine digs.
Higinbotham commended Paige Jones, who had seven digs, for her serve-receive performance in the match.
“Paige has been solid for years as my libero,” Higinbotham said.
The Raiders also got eight digs from Sydney Jones and seven digs from Cayla Rush.
Despite the disappointing loss, Waynesburg’s program broke new ground this season, winning a first-round match for the first time (its previous playoff wins had come in preliminary-round matches) with a sweep of Seton LaSalle, and earning its first trip to the final four by defeating Section 3 rival Frazier for third time in the quarterfinals.
“The Seton LaSalle game was absolutely humongous for us,” Higinbotham said. “Then the way they beat Frazier, they never played better. I would’ve liked to have seen us maybe take one off (North Catholic).
“But the season in all … a very big success. I’m happy with my team.”
It was the last match for senior starters Robinson, Rush, Sydney Jones and Riley Bowers.
“I actually sat down and had a little talk with them the other day and told them how important they were to this team,” Higinbotham said. “They’ve been with me ever since middle school. Those same four girls were undefeated in eighth grade and were a key part in getting us this far this year.
“Obviously, the rest of the team deserves credit as well, but we’ll miss those four girls.”