Peters Township ready to defend WPIAL girls volleyball title
Going into last season, Peters Township girls volleyball coach Chris Kelly said not too many people would’ve chosen his team to win a championship.
Maybe not even the sophomore-heavy Indians themselves.
But as the year progressed it became clear to them they were capable of handling the big moment and ended up making history for the school by winning the first WPIAL girls volleyball title and state playoff game.
They may have surprised some teams along the way, but that won’t be the case this year.
The Indians are the target – and they know that – as they embark on a title defense.
“We’ve only had a few practices, but we’ve just picked up where we left off last year,” Kelly said. “They’re used to playing together and like playing together. It’s a different kind of excitement compared to last year, because we sort of know what we’re doing now, but with that being said we know that expectations are high. We know we have to manage that and even though the expectations are high, we still have to perform.”
Kelly has experience in dealing with a team that is trying to win consecutive titles. He led Baldwin to championships in 2014 and ’15. He’ll lean on that experience this fall when guiding his current group.
“When we won the WPIAL title at Baldwin in 2014, we had missed the playoffs the year before, so it was an even more drastic turnaround,” Kelly said. “In 2015 we came in as the favorite and had to work through the fact that everyone was out to get us. I think I can draw on that with this group, because it’s a similar situation. There are things that we’re going to be talking about a lot. Not giving into the hype and still coming in and working as hard as we can and acting as if we’re in that spot where we’re still trying to earn our spot.”
Peters Township returns all but two starters and is led by Pitt recruit Alex Knox.
Knox, a junior, trained with the U-17 USA National team over the summer and is considered one of the top recruits in the 2028 class by scouting services.
She’ll be a setter at the next level, and while she sets for Peters Township, she plays multiple positions, including outside hitter.
“She’s a really good teammate and is developing into a really good leader,” Kelly said. “That’s what you want from your setter. For her club team she sets and when she goes to college, she’ll be a setter. She sets and hits for us and I think she likes it and it energizes her, because it’s something different.”
Plenty of others return to start alongside Knox.
That includes most of its front line, which is right side hitter Madelyn Carroll, a left-hander who Kelly said hits a heavy ball, Lily O’Connor, a junior that returns from injury to play outside hitter, Raia Lamping, another junior outside hitter, sophomore hitter Charlie Tookey, who started some games a freshman, starting middle hitters Elle Gorman a junior and Angelina Williams, a senior.
Eva Drake, a senior defensive specialist, also returns.
Six classes
A major change has happened with girls volleyball with the PIAA and subsequently the WPIAL, moving from four to six classes.
The change comes 10 years after the PIAA moved baseball, softball, basketball and football to six classifications.
Canon-McMillan will be the lone local Class 6A team and one of nine in the WPIAL.
South Fayette, Peters Township and Trinity are in Class 5A and all three are in Section 4.
Ringgold and Belle Vernon are among 16 teams in Class 4A.
Charleroi, Chartiers-Houston, McGuffey and Waynesburg are in Class 3A, which has 26 teams.
Class 2A has the most local teams with Avella, Bentworth, Burgettstown, Fort Cherry, Washington, Beth Center, California, Carmichaels, Jefferson-Morgan, Mapletown and West Greene.
No local team is playing in Class A.
“I think it levels the playing field a little bit,” Kelly said of the new six class format. “We were always competing with really big schools like North Allegheny, Pine-Richland and Seneca Valley, whose graduating classes are sometimes more than double than ours at Peters Township. However, Class 5A has the most teams in the WPIAL with 30, so it’ll be tough to come out of. It is nice that the WPIAL will have more representation at the state level with more classes.”
Playoff returners
While Peters Township is the lone local team to win a trophy last season, several other teams made deep runs into the playoffs
Waynesburg made the WPIAL Class 2A semifinals where it suffered a heartbreaking five-set loss to Avonworth but rebounded to win the consolation game to earn a spot in the state tournament for the first time.
California advanced to the Class A semifinals, where it lost to Frazier.
Beth-Center and Fort Cherry were section champs that won a playoff game in Class A. Canon-McMillan won a first-round game before losing to Peters Township in the quarterfinals. South Fayette also won a first-round game before falling in the quarterfinals.
McGuffey and Ringgold won play-in games.
Other playoff teams from last season were: Trinity, Chartiers-Houston and West Greene.