Undefeated Freeport too much for Waynesburg
McMURRAY – It was not a good day to be playing volleyball against Freeport High School. Then again, there has not been a good day all season to play Freeport, which won its eighth WPIAL championship under longtime head coach Tom Phillips.
The PIAA Class 3A playoff bracket deemed that Waynesburg had to play Freeport on Saturday in the quarterfinals at Peters Township High School’s AHN Arena. The undefeated Yellowjackets, using an impressive display of power hitting, team defense and precision passing, put an end to Waynesburg’s landmark season.
Freeport ousted Waynesburg in dominant fashion, sweeping the Raiders. Game scores were 25-16, 25-11 and 25-10.
Freeport’s domination of the match was so complete that Waynesburg never held a lead in any of the three games.
“I look for them to win states,” Waynesburg head coach Dan Higinbotham said of Freeport (23-0). “They weren’t in our classification last year. It’s a shame they’re here now.”
The loss ends Waynesburg’s season with a 21-2 record, the two losses coming against Freeport and Avonworth, the two teams that played in the WPIAL championship match. The Raiders finished in third place in the WPIAL.
Higinbotham’s postgame message to his players was a simple one – losing to Freeport shouldn’t put a damper on what has been a memorable season for the Raiders.
“That’s what I told my team,” Higinbotham said.
Waynesburg advanced to the WPIAL semifinals for the second consecutive year and won a game in the PIAA tournament for the first time in program history.
“I’m not satisfied with just getting to the (WPIAL) semifinals,” Higinbotham said. “I want to get to the final in the WPIAL. I feel very satisfied with our push into states.”
Against Freeport, Waynesburg started the match with a serve into the net and that hinted at what kind of day it was going to be for the Raiders. Freeport surged to big leads early in each game, including an 8-0 advantage in the opening set, 5-1 in the second and 6-0 in the third.
“They are relentless,” Higinbotham said of Freeport. “They have three good hitters and they are always going. At the beginning, we dug ourselves holes that were hard to get out of.”
Junior Lucy Majersky had six kills for Freeport in the opening game, which saw Waynesburg claw back from its bad start and twice get to within four points, the last time at 16-12, before the Yellowjackets closed with a flurry.
Over the final two games, junior Emily Boylan had 10 kills for Freeport, which will play Avonworth again in the semifinals Tuesday.
“I thought we could have slowed their hitters down a little bit,” Higinbotham said. “The biggest thing was serving. We didn’t serve tough enough to get them out of system. It only happened a handful of times. When we extended rallies it went in our favor.”
Despite the 3-0 loss, there were some bright spots for Waynesburg. Junior outside hitter Harper Grimes had 10 kills, including five in the opening game that sparked the comeback.
“Our goal was to make it past what we did last year,” Grimes said. “We made it to the WPIAL semifinals last year and the first round of the state tournament. Our goal this year was to make it to the second round and we did that.”
Waynesburg moved up to Class 3A this year and will return many of its key players next season. The Raiders had only three seniors on the roster: outside hitter Railey Bochna, setter Chatham Knight and defensive specialist Lelia McCollum.