ALTOONA — Tuesday evening proved to be quite a challenge for the Knoch girls volleyball team.

Its bus broke down on the way to the match and the Knights weren’t able to start warming up until about 4:45 p.m., forcing the start time back 40 minutes.

That proved to be too much for the Knights as they fell in the PIAA Class 3A girls volleyball semifinal against undefeated Palmyra, 3-1 (27-25, 23-25, 18-25, 9-25).

“They made a lot of adjustments,” said Knoch coach Diane Geist. “They have a lot of players that can hit from different areas. They served us really well and they just kept coming after we beat them the first game. They didn’t give up.”

In the first set, the Knights did have some nerves to shake off initially before a Hannah Rowe kill followed by a pair of aces from Skylar Burkett allowed them to jump out to an early 6-3 lead.

Knoch’s Rory McCune had one of her three finishes before a hit out of bounds by the Cougars gave Knoch the 27-25 win in the first set.

Burkett finished the night with nine kills and Rowe recorded 11.

“Knoch is a really good team,” Palmyra coach Clark Sheaffer said. “Both (Kennedy Christy) and (Rowe) are very good players and (Kenzie Kerkan) is a very good passer, too.

“The first game, I think we were just trying to feel it out and figure out as to where we should go. By the third game, we figured them out.”

Figure them out they did as at one point the Cougars went on an 8-0 run powered by a pair of aces from Jacklyn Baker and a finish from Allie Stoval to make it 19-11 before taking the second set 25-23 on a finish from Alicia Nissley.

“Their hitters are strong and they run a lot of quicks, a lot of shoots,” Geist said. “It’s a lot for our blockers to try and figure out. They were just the better team tonight.”

Nissley ended up with 15 finishes for the Cougars (24-0) while Stovall racked up 10.

In the third set, the Cougars didn’t look back as they started on an 8-1 run powered by two of Taylor McInerney’s game-high 20 kills. She also had 14 digs.

Rowe wouldn’t let the Knights (23-2) go away quietly as she had three kills which got them to within five before dropping the third set.

“A lot of teams hate short serves, so we do a lot of those short serves to take them out of the system so they can’t get the ball to their big guns,” Sheaffer said. “When you don’t give a ball to a great player, they get frustrated.”

Rowe also recorded 12 blocks in her final match in a Knoch uniform.

This marks the end of the road for nine Knights’ seniors who won three straight WPIAL titles, appeared in three state semifinal matches and were a part of the program’s 2017 state championship. Geist is grateful for their contributions.

“I told the seniors that this is your third time to the semifinal game. It’s been a pleasure coaching them, it’s been so much fun coaching them,” she said. “We’re really going to miss the seniors. I told them not to be ashamed of anything they did tonight.”