What to watch this week: North Catholic, Mars girls volleyball will meet in ‘fierce’ clash of WPIAL powers
It’s quite a high school girls volleyball season opener. North Catholic hopes it will be up to the task, though.
“The good teams out of conference really, really wanna play each other,” Trojanettes coach Amanda Fetter said of her team’s upcoming home matchup against Mars on Tuesday night. “We don’t shy away from that competition.”
The non-conference meeting between the Planets (2-1), last season’s WPIAL Class 3A champions, and North Catholic, Class 4A’s runner-up a year ago, just goes to show how strong the sport has become in the region.
“I think the volleyball in this part of the city has improved dramatically,” Caraway said. “I think every night, in our section, is a battle. ... Ever since (Fetter) got there, they’ve been a state contender.”
Fetter was just as complimentary about Mars, which has swept Armstrong, beat Shaler and bowed to Pine-Richland thus far. The Trojanettes have yet to play a match that counts.
“We definitely know what horses they have in their stable,” Fetter said. “CeCe Christy is no joke. ... So are Rylee Wooldridge and (Gabi Weidemann). They have a lot of talent that returned from a team that was very successful last year.”
Before being bumped up into the same classification and section as North Allegheny, the Trojanettes would tune themselves up by facing the Tigers early each season. The Planets are another familiar foe.
“They’re five minutes down the road,” Mars coach Tami Caraway said. “Our kids are all friends, they play club with each other, they live in the same communities. (It’s) a chance for friendly, but fierce competition.”
Caraway highlighted Wooldridge as a player who’s been “taking a lot of swings and doing a lot of passing for us. She has been, if not our kill leader, close to the top. Same with digs.” Senior Alaina Graham has looked polished as a libero for the Planets.
Although it’s a non-conference clash, a win against the Trojanettes would give Caraway’s crew a confidence boost early in the campaign.
“They are a benchmark,” Caraway said. “They are good year in and year out. It was like Freeport last year. If you can beat a team like that, that shows the improvement that your program has achieved and encouragement to keep getting better.”
No matter the result, the tilt should pay dividends as the schedule progresses.
“You want to have a heavy schedule,” Fetter said. “It just kinda sets you up to be prepared for (tough section play).”
After notching a 1-0 win against Gateway on Tuesday night, Golden Tornado boys soccer coach Troy Mohney first picked apart what his young team could’ve done better in the postgame huddle. He said afterward Butler still has a ways to go in finding itself.
George Williams’ Raiders are 4-0. They’ve outscored the opposition 17-3. Thursday night’s encounter at 7:45 at Seneca Valley could show if the Golden Tornado is ahead of the curve.
First-year Butler girls volleyball coach Halee McCance described her team as a gritty bunch in the preseason. That identity has yielded a 3-0 start before section play begins next week.
If the Golden Tornado can carry their momentum through matches against Fox Chapel (7 p.m. Tuesday) and Mars (7:30 p.m. Thursday) this week, it could bode well for a team trying to escape the WPIAL Section 2-4A gauntlet and and be one of its three teams to reach the postseason.
