SHALER TWP — Mackensey Jack looks around the court and sees weapons everywhere.

Back row, front row, outside, inside, the Freeport volleyball team is formidable.

The Yellowjackets put that balance on full display Saturday in the PIAA 2A quarterfinals against Beaver Area.

Freeport (20-0) didn't miss a beat in a 25-17, 25-14, 25-19 sweep at Shaler High School.

Knoch reached the semifinals in Class 3A with a 3-0 blanking of Franklin Regional.

Jack, a senior middle hitter, led the way for Freeport with 11 kills. Tori Radvan added 10 and Isabella Russo and Lauren Lampus had eight each.

“I think we're all really good at getting kills,” Jack said. “We're a very even team and I think that's what makes us good.”

Freeport was on the top of its game Saturday at Shaler High School after an uneven performance in the opening round of the state playoffs, albeit in another sweep.

The Yellowjackets were crisp, focused and made very few errors on the way to a quarterfinal win and a date with North Catholic Tuesday in the semifinals.

“We were really good today,” Jack said. “(The first round) taught us that in practice we needed to go in and clean things up.”

Clean up, the Yellowjackets did.

Maddie Clark, the quarterback on the floor as the setter, had 35 assists.

“It was a total team effort today,” said Freeport coach Tom Phillips. “We talk about not being a one-dimensional team, about coming at teams from all angles and that's what it's all about.”

The only time Freeport was really challenged by Beaver was in the third set.

After taking a 21-11 lead, Beaver rolled off eight straight points to cut the advantage to two.

Some breaks helped the Bobcats. Two serves hit the tape at the top of the net and fell in for aces.

Phillips, nor his team, never panicked, and he didn't call a time out.

Instead, Jack staunched the bleeding with consecutive kills, Clark got a rare kill from the back row and Freeport clinched the win on one of many Beaver unforced errors in the match.

“I knew we weren't going to let Game 3 slip away,” Phillips said. “Sometimes when you're up 2-0, there's a tendency to rock back a little bit. You don't normally play overly aggressive. We kind of went into neutral mode.”

Now, Freeport gets to see an old, familiar face.

North Catholic polished off a 3-1 win over defending state champion and undefeated Bald Eagle Saturday to set up a clash with the Yellowjackets.

Last year in the state playoffs, Freeport stunned North Catholic 3-2 in the quarterfinals.

This season, the Yellowjackets fell behind 2-0 to the Trojanettes, but stormed back to win 3-2 in the WPIAL final.

Phillips said he is happy with how his team is playing right now heading into another meeting with North Catholic at 7 p.m. Tuesday at North Allegheny.

“I've said it once and I've said it a thousand times,” Phillips said. “It's going to take a darn good team to beat them.”

They're back.In more ways than one.At full strength with relatively healthy Kennedy Christy and Hannah Rowe back playing full-time, Knoch rolled to a 25-15, 25-16, 25-15 victory over Franklin Regional in the PIAA 3A quarterfinals.The Knights (23-1) cruised in all three sets and never gave up more than three points in a row to the Panthers.“We wanted to work on finishing in practice,” Rowe said. “We were letting teams creep up on us, but we did a pretty good job shutting them down.”Knoch's big three — Skye Burkett, Christy and Rowe — combined for 27 kills.Burkett led the way with 11.Rowe had eight kills and eight blocks and was all over the court on defense.“She moves well,” said Knoch coach Diane Geist.Even with a balky back that was iced down at the end of the match.“I take a lot of pride in my play in the back row because it wasn't something I was super strong in last year,” Rowe said. “Even in the beginning of the season before I got hurt, I was still a work in progress. I really feel like I've picked up my serve-receive.”Christy looked even better Saturday after returning to the court for the first time in several weeks in the first round.Christy had eight kills and 12 digs.“She turned it on,” Geist said. “She has a different level. She made some nice blocks and defensive plays, which was key.”Defense will be key for Knoch to get back to the state title match after winning the championship in 2017.Knoch plays undefeated Palmyra at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Altoona.Like the Knights, Palmyra has several potent hitters.“The next round we're going to really need to play good defense,” Geist said. “It's going to be a really strong matchup. We're going to have to be mentally strong and ready to play defense, ready to block.”