South Fayette boys volleyball makes history with 1st PIAA win
South Fayette boys volleyball coach Scott Sundgren wonders sometimes if his players understand the significance of what they have accomplished this season.
It may be sinking after what they accomplished Tuesday night.
The Lions made program history by winning their first state playoff game.
They earned a 3-1 win at District 6 champion Central (Martinsburg) in the first round of the PIAA Class 2A playoffs.
The Lions are certainly reaching heights they’ve never seen before.
“It’s pretty cool and an accomplishment to be still playing at this point,” Sundgren said. “I think once they had that win last night, they started to realize that what they’re doing is something special. I’m really happy for them. They are a great group of guys and they’ve probably achieved more than they thought they were going to do at the beginning of the season.”
Prior to last year the Lions had never been in a WPIAL semifinal or qualified for the state tournament. They lost to Meadville in the first round last year.
But after making the WPIAL finals for the first time where they fell to four-time defending champion Shaler, the Lions made the trip to Martinsburg well worth it.
South Fayette shook off an uneven start to win the first set, 25-18, but Central evened the match with a 25-23 victory in set two.
Once it was tied, the Lions took control and eventually won the third and fourth sets 25-21 and 25-18 to clinch the match.
“We were a little bit sloppy early,” Sundgren said. “We didn’t control the ball well and made a lot of unforced errors. They were good at making us make plays. They were scrappy and got the ball back over the net. By the third and fourth set we cleaned it up and were a lot more consistent. It was a little bit of a choppy start compared to our normal game, but that’s OK. It happens sometimes.”
South Fayette has a senior-heavy lineup, including its three starters in the frontcourt. Each one played a big role in beating Central.
Dilsher Goraya had a huge night with 37 kills. Quinn Leroux added 11 kills and Arya Pamecha contributed nine kills.
Sundgren said Goraya has been their go-to guy for offense all season, so he wasn’t surprised to see him put forth a big-time performance.
South Fayette had a long layoff after losing to Shaler in the WPIAL final. Most other districts had another week of playoffs before the state tournament, so the Lions were idle for 11 days.
After playing at least twice a week for the better part of two months, it was a bit different to have that much down time, but the Lions made the most of it.
“After the finals, we actually took five days off through the Memorial Day weekend and started back up that Tuesday,” Sundgren said. “We did an intrasquad scrimmage and I tried to manage the practices from there. It’s hard, because at this point of the season, it’s not like we’re learning new stuff. We’re just trying to keep clicking and maybe work on a couple things to touch up things here and there. Honestly right now we’re just trying to stay healthy. It’s about finding the right balance, which is hard with that kind of time frame.”
The Lions have a quicker turnaround for the state quarterfinals, where they’ll play District 3 runner-up Brandywine Heights on Saturday. Brandywine Heights defeated Holy Redeemer in four sets in a first-round game on Wednesday.
Sundgren planned to watch the livestream of Wednesday’s game and do some other advanced scouting, but said it’s just as important for his team to execute to keep their season going.
“We’ll look for tendencies and who do they like to go to and what their setter looks like,” Sundgren said. “At the end of the day if we’re not controlling our errors, I can know everything about the other team, like their birthdays and their favorite food, but if we don’t do what we’re supposed to do it doesn’t really matter.”