Knoch's 'go-to' girl

November 28, 2017 Last Updated: November 30, 2017 04:50 PM High School

Knoch senior Sarah Armahizer (31), who produced 240 kills this season for Knoch's undefeated state championship team, has been named the Butler Eagle's Girls Volleybal Player of the Year.

Armahizer true game-changer on court for Knights' unbeaten 3A state title team

JEFFERSON TWP — One of Sarah Armahizer's fondest memories of playing volleyball at Knoch has little to do with volleyball.

During the preseason before her junior year, Armahizer and her teammates were bugged by a water bottle stuck in the netting high above the Knoch gym floor.

For most of the season, they tried to get it down, throwing volleyballs — among other things — at it in an attempted to dislodge the irksome bottle.

Finally, they succeeded.

“It was too funny because we were trying to get this bottle down for months and could never get it,” Armahizer said. “When we got it, we were like, 'Oh my God, what's in it?'”

It turned out to be Gatorade and Armahizer's teammate, Abby Kopac, kept it for posterity.

“(She) still has it in her room as a joke,” Armahizer said. “It was the funniest thing to us.”

That determination to free the bottle from the netting mirrored that of Armahizer and her team on the volleyball court.

More than a year later, they capped the season with a PIAA 3A championship.

Armahizer, the 6-foot heart and soul of the team in the middle, also capped her senior campaign with the 2017 Butler Eagle Girls Volleyball Player of the Year Award.

“It's an amazing feeling,” Armahizer said of winning the state title and the player of the year. “I would not have wanted to go out any other way.”Armahizer was dominant this season with 340 kills in 24 matches.She edged Seneca Valley's Emily Devlin, A-C Valley's Josey Terwilliger, Butler's Maria Lucas and Freeport's Claire Crytzer for the Butler Eagle player of the year honor.Armahizer was a star in junior high as her teams never lost a match.When she got to high school, she was unsure of where she would fit in the program.“We go to the California (Pa.) University tournament every year as a team thing and coach split us into junior varsity and varsity before my freshman year,” Armahizer said. “When coach put me in varsity, I was like, 'Oh, OK.' It was the first time I thought I can actually do this.”It certainly wasn't the last.Knoch coach Diane Geist had just lost all-state player Celina Sanks to graduation and was looking to fill that enormous void.She was hoping Armahizer would be the one.“I thought, 'Who is our next big gun?' Geist said. “'Who is our next big hitter?' I was hoping it would be Sarah. It turned out pretty well.”Armahizer wasn't the strongest hitter at the net during her freshman year, so she learned how to be crafty.Her knack for finding open spots on the floor served her well, even at the end of her career when she could smash the ball to the floor with the best of them when she let her arm loose.“That presence at the net she brought was special,” Geist said. “She's intimidating. If you talk to her as a person, she's not intimidating, but when she's at the net she is. She's straight-faced and she puts the ball down hard. She's won so many games at the end for us.”Armahizer recently signed with Edinboro University to continue her academic and athletic career.West Virginia Wesleyan, California (Pa.) University and Apalachian State University were also interested.Armahizer chose Edinboro for a few simple reasons, chiefly its environmental science program and a young, hungry volleyball roster.“They're a young team, so I think that's good for me,” Armahizer said. “I can go in there and start playing right away.”What Armahizer is looking most forward to, though, is making more memories with her new teammates like she made with her “second family.”It's those memories — like trying to dislodge a water bottle from netting — is what she cherishes most.“They're my family,” Armahizer said. “I've never been closer with a group of girls than I am with them.”