Waynesburg sweeps Chartiers-Houston to remain unbeaten
HOUSTON – The Waynesburg girls volleyball team may have changed classifications from 2A to 3A, but one thing has remained the same.
The Raiders are still winning.
A lot.
In fact, they have only dropped one set all season.
Waynesburg’s run of dominance continued Thursday night with a 3-0 sweep of Chartiers-Houston in a Class 3A Section 4 match.
The Raiders improved to 7-0 in the section and 9-0 overall. Chartiers-Houston fell to 3-4 in the section and 6-5 overall.
Waynesburg won by set scores of 25-15, 25-11 and 25-18.
Outside of dropping a set in a 3-1 win against Yough, it’s been clean sweeps all year for the Raiders and that was the case again Thursday.
“Our team is extremely strong again this year,” Waynesburg coach Dan Higinbotham said. “I feel very confident in them. We picked up where we left off.”
The Raiders never trailed in the first set. They scored 11 of the first 15 points to establish a healthy lead and didn’t look back.
Outside of seven service errors, it was pretty smooth sailing for Waynesburg.
Emily Rafferty, fresh off playing a soccer game for Waynesburg against McGuffey, factored in on the set point by getting the ball over the net and the Bucs had a hitting error out of bounds.
Brooklyn Hess had the lone kill for Chartiers-Houston in the first set.
Bucs coach Amanda Bilitski noted after the match that her team is young and building. The Bucs are in position to battle for a playoff spot.
Ava Kolovich had a service ace to give the Bucs a 2-0 lead early in the second set, but Waynesburg went on a 5-0 run to take the lead and held it the rest of the way.
A kill by Rafferty extended the lead to 10-6 and was part of a 6-0 run that also featured kills from Harper Grimes and Railey Bochna.
Mackenzie Shumar stopped the run with an ace, but Rafferty, with a jump serve, had consecutive aces to make it 17-9 and force a Bucs time out.
An ace from Evelyn Meighen got the Raiders to set point and Railey Bochna hit a ball that the Bucs couldn’t return to clinch the set.
A kill by Tessa Valencia and an ace by Hess gave the Bucs a 5-3 lead in the third set, but Waynesburg responded with a 8-0 run.
Bochna had three kills during the run, Chatham Knight had two and Rafferty had one.
An ace by Haley Margerum got the Bucs to within 16-13, but Waynesburg shut the door from there.
Grimes had a pair of kills and Rafferty a pair of aces to make it 21-13 forcing a Bucs time out.
A pair of kills from Bochna closed out the match.
“Our attack comes from everywhere,” Higinbotham said. “It’s strong. We have strong hitters.”