Oct 6, 2025 By Jerin Steele 4 min read

The Beth-Center volleyball team has a lot of traits that successful teams possess.

They’re experienced and they have depth, but for Bulldogs coach Steve Beyer the one that stands out to him the most is their ‘refuse to lose’ mentality.

It was there at the beginning of the season when they railed from a 2-0 deficit to a win in five sets in a nonsection match against Fort Cherry back on Sept. 2, and it has continued ever since.

The Bulldogs are unbeaten at 6-0 in Class A Section 3 and in position to win their first section championship since 2017. They play West Greene tonight at 7 p.m..

Beyer first sensed the season could be special when the Bulldogs won the summer league at Penn State Fayette.

“You could see in the summer that these girls were playing for each other, having fun and they just refused to lose,” Beyer said.

Beth-Center graduated only one player, Callie Dorsey, who is now playing at Washington & Jefferson.

The Bulldogs have nine seniors, three juniors and one sophomore on the roster.

Emma Pohill, Ava Jenkins, Hannah Binns, Ava Zibrida, Bella Lloyd, Kyleigh McDaniel, Violet Trump and Emma Smalley are the nine seniors. Ella Simms, Kendall Welsh and Abby Novotney are the juniors and Jenna Pohill is the sophomore.

Simms is the leading hitter on the team from the outside. Jenna Pohill can slot in at either middle or outside hitter. Novotney and Smalley are middle hitters and Trump is the right-side hitter.

Welsh has been the starting setter the last two years. She’s also the leading scorer on the Beth-Center girls soccer team.

Binns, Lloyd, McDaniel and Zibrida make up a strong back row. McDaniel has been the starting libero for three years.

“Coming into the season we knew we had a veteran team,” Beyer said. “It was just a matter of everybody playing to their potential and us playing together as a team. The nice thing is we have depth. The last two and a half weeks we’ve gone with a different lineup almost every game. We win by committee.”

The summer league was a springboard, but Beyer said the turning point in the season was early on when they beat Fort Cherry, another Class A playoff team, in five sets after dropping the first two sets.

The Bulldogs were down 24-19 in the third set but rallied to win 27-25 and the comeback was on.

“Their backs were against the wall, and they were trailing, but they will continue to battle,” Beyer said. “That’s their best trait. They don’t get nervous. We have preached the last few years about mental toughness, and the girls have really bought into it.”

Beth-Center has swept Mapletown and has wins over West Greene, Jefferson-Morgan, Carmichaels and Avella. In the first round of section play the Bulldogs won in three sets in all but one match, which was a 3-1 win over Jefferson-Morgan.

A win against West Greene tonight will go a long way toward solidifying an outright section title. West Greene is 5-1 in the section, while everyone else has three or more losses.

Beth-Center’s lone loss was a 3-2 match against Southmoreland, a playoff team in Class 2A. Another stern out of section test is next Monday when Waynesburg comes to Beth-Center.

Waynesburg is undefeated in Class 2A.

The Bulldogs were a playoff team last year after missing in 2023, but they lost in four sets to Serra Catholic in the first round. The hope is to make a deeper run this fall, but at the same time aren’t looking too far ahead.

“One thing is that our section is competitive, and there’s no cupcakes,” Beyer said. “Every single night is a battle and that helps prepare us. We’ve been fortunate that we’ve gone undefeated so far. We’ve also scheduled some tough nonsection games. We’re excited to play Waynesburg, because we know that’s the type of opponent we’re going to see in the playoffs.”