South Fayette boys volleyball enjoying undefeated season
South Fayette boys volleyball coach Scott Sundgren likened a sports season to a funnel.
It starts at the top with everyone and as the year moves along slowly some are filtered out until it gets to the narrow end with the elite.
Sundgren’s Lions are proving that they belong in the conversation of the elite in WPIAL Class 2A this season.
South Fayette is a perfect 13-0 and are atop the Class 2A Section 4 standings at 7-0.
The Lions have three games standing between them and a perfect regular season. They play at Montour tonight, at OLSH Tuesday and host Ambridge Thursday.
“The funnel effect is something I always talk about with our teams,” said Sundgren, who also coaches the South Fayette girls volleyball team. “As you move through the second half of the season and into the playoffs everything gets harder. The second half you’ve already seen everybody, so they know you and as you get into the playoffs you are funneling down to the better teams. That’s when you really hope to be playing your best volleyball, so we want to keep building. I believe we have a group of players that compete for a championship, but there’s a long way to go.”
South Fayette’s most recent win was a 3-0 sweep of Trinity on Thursday. The Hillers are the second-place team in the section and are headed to the playoffs.
South Fayette is coming off its best season in program history. The Lions made the WPIAL Class 2A semifinals, won the consolation game and clinched a state playoff berth for the first time.
A veteran team returned and has carried the momentum over.
Five members of the starting rotation: outside hitters Dilsher Goraya and Arya Pamecha, middle blocker Quinn Leroux, setter Jaydev Reddy and libero Kavy Dave are seniors.
“We had a really good core coming in, it was just going to depend of how they’d merge and grow together,” Sundgren said. “They’ve done really well.”
Leroux is the twin brother of Juliette Leroux, who led the South Fayette girls basketball team to consecutive PIAA Class 5A championships and is the 2025-26 Observer-Reporter Player of the Year. He has another sister, Ava, who plays college basketball at Robert Morris and his dad was a defenseman for the Pittsburgh Penguins in the mid 1990’s.
Standing at 6-foot-5, Leroux is an imposing figure in the middle of the net for South Fayette.
“He actually plays the same position (in volleyball) as his sisters,” Sundgren said. “He definitely has a size advantage and actually he moves really well for his size. He’s one of the smartest humans I know. He’s making himself more available this year as a hitter. In transition he’s moving better and that leads to more opportunities to get the ball to him.”
Sundgren credited his outside hitters, Goraya and Pamecha, with being the key to a successful attack. Both are listed at 6-1.
Having multiple options makes it tough for opponents to key their block on one player.
“In volleyball, outside hitter strength is one of the most important things,” Sundgren said. “If you have strong outside hitters you’re going to do well, because the frequency in which they see the ball is very high. Both of those guys are maneuverable, they hit high and they hit well. There’s a lot of advantages to having to very good outside hitters.”
While South Fayette is unbeaten, not every game has been a walk in the park. Of their 13 wins, only six have been sweeps. Six others have gone four sets, and they had a five-set win over Peters Township in a nonsection game.
Sundgren looks at it as a positive that they’ve had to battle some adversity.
“We’re fortunate that we have a very good section,” Sundgren said. “The teams we play against are excellent. We have to go out and compete every night and I think that helps us.”
Seton LaSalle, Derry and Shaler are the other section leaders. Seton LaSalle is the only other unbeaten team at 17-0. Shaler, the defending WPIAL champ, is 11-1.
South Fayette has never won a WPIAL title or even played in a final, but seems to be the best position it’s ever been in to try to accomplish that this season.