Nov 2, 2025 3 min read

By Joe Tuscano

For the Observer-Reporter

newsroom@observer-reporter.com

McMURRAY – The problem with fairy tale endings is that sometimes they don’t work out the way we want.

Take Saturday night as an example.

We find a Peters Township team looking for its first WPIAL volleyball title against a very good Pine-Richland team that has four championship trophies sitting in the trophy case at school.

Peters Township has none but did have the advantage of playing this important match on their home court, at Peters Township High School.

And whether that helped or not, it’s hard to tell. What isn’t hard to tell is the total domination the Indians held over Pine-Richland this time in winning that first title, 3-0. The Indians routed the Rams, 26-24, 25-21 25-11, avenging a previous loss to Pine-Richland in September and locking up a first-round spot in the PIAA Class 4A playoffs. Peters Township will play the fourth-place finisher in District 3 on Tuesday.

“I don’t know what to tell you. I can’t believe it,” said Peters Township head coach Chris Kelly. “They have gotten so much better as the season progressed. We talked about getting better each day, and I think they’ve done it. I think we’re playing our best volleyball of the season. And that’s what you want to do, right?”

Peters Township won eight of the last 11 points to sew up a 26-24 win in the first game. The Indians came out strong in game 2, scoring the first five points and never looked back. In Game 3, the Rams wilted, falling prey to the front line of Maddie Carroll and Elle Gorman. Their returns were so wicked that it was hard not to feel sorry for the Rams who were on the receiving end of those blasts.

“Our blocking wasn’t sure where to go,” said Pine-Richland head coach Angela Semen. “I think this is going to light a fire underneath us. I think this will attest to us reading scouting reports to know exactly what they’re going to do.”

“I had a feeling it would be like this,” said Carroll. “I think we worked really hard in all of our games and we perfected it. I knew from the first ball we were going to win it.”

The win moved Peters Township’s record to 16-3 while Pine-Richland fell to 14-6.

“I wouldn’t have thought we’d go this far,” said Gorman. “Maddie was especially strong tonight. I think this was a strong example of how we can play together as a team. We played for each other and that got us through.”