North Catholic volleyball heads to PIAA Final
FOX CHAPEL — For all others, it was the doorstep of the girls volleyball final for Class 3A. For North Catholic’s Ally Feczko, it simply appeared to be target practice at Fox Chapel High School.
The Trojanettes’ senior piled up an impressive 28 kills, most of which were emphatic slaps from the left side, set by fellow court veteran Sydnei Jones. North wound up recovering from a lost opening game to beat Thomas Jefferson in four sets by scores of 20-25, 25-19, 27-25, and 25-14.
Feczko’s output was beyond valuable in a whirlwind of a third game. The teams were even at a set apiece and the score was tied eight times before either team reached 10 points in the game. She turned in 11 kills, including five in a 10-serve stretch.
“I try to do my best on every single play and find where they aren’t on the court and put the ball there,” Feczko said. “That’s all I focus on.”
The showing came as no surprise to Trojanettes coach Amanda Fetter.
“That’s who Ally is,” she said. “And I’m lucky to have her.”
Jones chipped in with one block, four kills, and three aces — two of which came in a strong final game.
“They’re used to each other,” Fetter said of Feczko and Jones. “They’re a super special combination that I don’t think you see all the time … I’m just honestly honored to be a small part of their volleyball journey.”
North held a three-point advantage in the initial set, then were passed up with an 11-3 run to close things out. The Trojanettes had a service error, allowed two aces, and had two hitting errors over that span.
“We were able to serve them and make them go out of system and, when we got a free ball, we were able to put it away,” Thomas Jefferson coach Ron Kelly said. “Second game, it was the same for them. Third game was a killer … It was about a lucky break here, a lucky break there.”
Then, Feczko and Co. put it out of their heads and forged forward.
“We really found their weak spots and were able to push through,” Feczko said.
The Trojanettes had been calm, cool, and collected all season. It was no different on this night.
“We, for whatever reason recently, have been starting slow,” Fetter said. “I don’t want to say we were okay with it, because we weren’t. But, it also wasn’t something that knocked our doors off.”
“They started to get their mojo,” Kelly said. “Their one outside hitter (Feczko) was doing a really good job out there. She kept using our block, hitting it off the top.
“We had her blocked a couple times, but just couldn’t get the run after the block and take the momentum away.”
