CORAOPOLIS - Seneca Valley made a run, but gave up too many runs.

The Raiders' girls volleyball team had its quest for the PIAA Class AAA title end Saturday afternoon with a 3-1 semi-final loss to Landisville Hempfield at the Robert Morris University Sewall Center.

Hempfield (30-0) went on to defeat Susquehannock 3-1 to claim its first-ever state championship. The Black Knights played in their fourth state tournament in the past five seasons. They lost in the finals in 2000 and last year.

"Teams had the experience edge over us in this tournament," Seneca Valley coach Heather Haff said. "This was our first time in the state tournament and all of the other teams have been here often.

"We fought hard. We played well. We just gave up a few too many runs and that's something you can't do at this level."

Hempfield won the match 25-17, 25-23, 20-25, 25-20. The Black Knights were led by two middle hitters in 5-foot-11 junior Paige Johnston and 6-0 sophomore Christi Griffiths.

Johnston had 19 kills with Griffiths adding 12 kills and four dinks. That duo, along with senior 5-11 captain Sara Ruth, withstood the Raiders' heavy hitting by the net.

"Seneca Valley is an excellent team and if we played them tomorrow, they might beat us," Hempfield coach Mike Vogel said. "Sara saved this game defensively for us as far as I'm concerned.

"She stopped a lot of spike attempts. She stopped a ton of would-be points."

The Raiders had won 18 consecutive games in postseason play before dropping six of their final seven in the state tournament.

In five of those losses, Seneca Valley scored at least 20 points.

"We were right there," Haff said. "I'm proud of the way my team competed in this atmosphere and after falling behind. These kids weren't used to that."

Raiders senior Laura Dubois produced a kill to knot the second game at 23. Johnston responded with a kill of her own and Griffiths blocked a shot to hand Hempfield a key 25-23 victory.

The Raiders fought back to win the third game, but fell behind 5-0 in the fourth. Dubois produced four straight service points - the fourth on an ace - to give Seneca Valley an 18-17 lead in Game 4.

Raider junior Chelsey Pavlick's kill gave the Raiders a 19-18 lead, but Griffiths scored three consecutive points during a five-point Black Knight run that ultimately decided the match.

"When you have to come from that far behind, it's grueling and it takes a lot out of you," Haff said. "We made some mistakes and we were getting tired.

"Coming into this match, I felt that if we played at our best and they played at their best, we would win. Our mistakes came at critical times."

"It's so different at this level," senior setter Mallory Demarco said. "The volleys are longer and the other team blocks shots you're used to having fall in for points.

"You just have to step up and play to the competition. We did that. We just didn't do it enough."

Dubois paced the Raiders with 18 kills and three aces. Lindsey Skorupan added 11 kills and Danielle Diamond 10.

"They made some adjustments and we were having trouble handling No. 7 (Skorupan)," Vogel said. "She has a tremendous shot.

"This (title win) is big for us because we have a lot of young kids."

Hempfield has only four seniors. Seneca Valley has six - Dubois, Skorupan, Demarco, Faith Guerra, Laurie Linder and Kristi Schutte.

"They all played a lot this year," Haff said. "We'll be using a lot of new kids next year, but our younger players got so much better in practice from playing against these seniors."

Demarco said being part of the first Raider volleyball team to reach the state tournament - and win the WPIAL - will be her fondest memory of her senior season.

"We were the first team from our school to get this far," she said. "We won some games here, were in every game … We proved we belonged here.

"We're one of the four best teams in the state. It's nice to know that."