McGuffey rallies to defeat Chartiers-Houston
Highlanders give coach Harshman a playoff win in her final season
McMURRAY – McGuffey coach Jo Ann Harshman posed a question to her team before the fifth set of Monday’s match with Chartiers-Houston.
“We told them it’s theirs to win or lose and you make the decision,” Harshman said.
The Highlanders decided to take the match by the reins and leave no doubt.
After winning the fourth set, McGuffey scored the first five points in the decider and won 15-8 to secure a 3-2 victory in the WPIAL Class 2A girls volleyball preliminary round at Peters Township’s AHN Arena.
“They made the decision,” Harshman said. “They wanted to win.”
Maura Janovich started the fifth with consecutive kills from the middle of the net and Chartiers-Houston had three errors in a row, which gave McGuffey a 5-0 cushion to start.
Kills from Miley Main and Sarah Brownlee and two aces by Gracie McVeigh made it 9-2 and Chartiers-Houston called time out.
Chartiers-Houston got three points out of the timeout on McGuffey errors to cut the lead to 9-5, but an emphatic spike by Main ended the run.
Brooke Popeck responded with a kill for the Bucs, but another unforced error gave McGuffey an 11-6 lead.
An ace by Nicole Klages and a kill by McVeigh clinched the match and a playoff win for Harshman in 40th and final season as the Highlanders’ coach.
“It couldn’t be a better way to go out,” Harshman said.
The Highlanders advanced to play at top-seeded Hopewell in the first round at 7:30 p.m. tonight
McGuffey forced the deciding set with a dominant 25-13 win in the fourth. A 7-0 run gave the Highlanders a 16-7 lead and they were never threatened from there. Main finished off the set with a pair of kills.
It provided a boost going into the fifth set.
“Once you get that little bit of momentum it’s huge,” Harshman said. “Volleyball is all about momentum and once it came back on our side that was big.”
McGuffey (12-5) and Chartiers-Houston (11-9) split during section play, both sweeping the home match, but needed all five to decide the rubber match.
The Bucs ended up on the wrong side, but it was a strong performance considering what’s transpired in the program the last few weeks.
Coaches Ryan and Lauren Hyland quit midseason. The Bucs had one coach, Tony Andreola left on the coaching staff, but Amanda Bilitski stepped in to take over as head coach three weeks ago.
“I came into the gym, said hi to the girls, got on a bus, went to Bentworth and won the match that night,” Bilitski said.
For a while it looked like the Bucs might win Monday.
Chartiers-Houston led the entire first set, but faced a challenge late.
A 5-0 run by the Highlanders with kills from Main, Grace McVeigh and a block by Eliana Janovich cut the Bucs lead to 22-21.
Bilitski called a time out and it seemed to work wonders.
The Bucs secured three straight points to close out the set. Kylee Bandini had a tip over the net that landed on the McGuffey side of the court for set point.
Popeck had a huge first set with four kills and a couple blocks.
Four consecutive aces by Elizabeth Chabala helped the Bucs take an early 6-1 lead in the second set.
They held that lead until Maura Janovich stepped to the service line and rattled off four consecutive aces to give the Highlanders their first lead of the match at 20-19. Eliana Janovich had a kill and a couple hitting errors by Chartiers-Houston continued the run.
McGuffey ended up scoring nine of the last 10 points and took the set 25-20. Eliana Janovich had a kill for set point.
Chartiers-Houston shook off the disappointment of letting the second set slip away by jumping out to a 14-9 lead in the third.
McGuffey made a run, scoring six straight points to take a brief 15-14 lead, but the Bucs scored eight of the next 10 points to regain control.
Kills from Popeck, Ava Kolovich and Chabala came during the run. A McGuffey hitting error clinched a 25-21 win for the Bucs.
“I’m proud of the girls,” Bilitski said. “The last three weeks I’ve been with them, they’ve worked so hard and have improved so much, not only in their play, but their attitude and belief that they can do it.
“It’s been fun watching them fall in love with the sport that I’ve been in love with since I was in junior high. It’s been great sharing that with them.
I’m excited to hopefully continue and build a really successful program at Chartiers-Houston.”