Waynesburg sweeps QV to advance to quarterfinals
WAYNESBURG – For the Waynesburg girls volleyball team, Tuesday night’s playoff match was the epitome of an old saying: It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.
In the first two sets the No. 2 seed and heavily favored Raiders fell behind No. 15 Quaker Valley, but steadied themselves and rallied back to take both.
And the Raiders ended up doing something they’ve done in most matches all season, which is sweep their opponent in straight sets, beating the Quakers 3-0 in the WPIAL Class 3A first round and advancing to Thursday’s quarterfinals where they will face No. 10 South Allegheny, who defeated McGuffey on Tuesday.
Waynesburg also defeated Quaker Valley in straight sets during a nonsection match on October 13.
“Our serve receive was constant the whole night, even when we were missing shots early,” Waynesburg coach Dan Higginbotham said. “They changed their lineup a little bit and it was kind of a guessing game. We guessed right two of the three games and were able to shut them down. I feel that they are not a 15 seed. I feel like they were an 8 to 10 seed, so I was a little worried about them, because they’re well-coached. I’m glad our girls prevailed tonight.”
On Tuesday, it was the upset-minded Quakers who got off to a strong start and jumped out to an 11-6 lead in the first set.
The Quakers (6-11) kept the Raiders (18-0) out of rhythm in their offense early and their kill attempts to a minimum.
The tide started to turn when Chatham Knight stepped to the service line for the Raiders. Knight served five straight points, including two aces and Waynesburg had its first lead at 12-11.
“I tell the team a lot that we have to control the things we can control and serving is one of them,” Knight said. “There was so much emotion and passion for us, because we didn’t want to lose in the first round of the playoffs. We didn’t want it to be our last game, so taking control there and getting us on a roll was huge for us.”
The score stayed close from there until Waynesburg got a kill off a block from Railey Bochna that sparked a 4-0 run that made it 19-15.
Two kills from Emma Blair and Emily Rafferty got it to set point and Knight finished it off with a service ace to give the Raiders a 25-19 win.
It was a similar story in the second set.
Quaker Valley jumped out to a 9-5 lead and were up 10-7 when Waynesburg made a 10-0 run to take a 17-10 lead.
It was almost a carbon copy to the run in the previous set, except this time it was libero Leila McCollum at the service line. Bochna had three kills during the run and McCollum had one ace.
Rafferty had a pair of kills and Harper Grimes finished off the set with a kill from the middle to give Waynesburg a 25-14 win.
The second set showcased the many different hitters Waynesburg has at its disposal.
“That’s huge for us, because I know if I’m struggling, we have so many other hitters that are there that can put the ball down just as good as I do,” Bochna said.
Bochna was not struggling Tuesday.
She helped the Raiders jump out to a 9-2 lead in the third set and they didn’t look back.
Bochna ripped a kill off a block attempt for set point.
The win gets the Raiders one step closer to getting back to the semifinals after falling in five sets to Avonworth last year.
A potential meeting with Avonworth looms if both teams win in the quarterfinals.
“We want to prove ourselves,” Knight said. “We all wear Waynesburg proudly on our chest and I think getting back to that place we were last year…we just have so much more to prove, and we want to show that really badly.”