Eagle volleyball player of the year Armahizer reflects

November 27, 2017 Last Updated: November 30, 2017 05:00 PM Digital Media Exclusive

Knoch senior Sarah Armahizer (31), who produced 240 kills this season for Knoch's undefeated state championship team, has been named the Butler Eagle Girls Volleyball Player of the Year.

JEFFERSON TWP — One of Sarah Armahizer's fondest memories of playing volleyball at Knoch has little to do with volleyball.

During the preseason before her junior year, Armahizer and her teammates were bugged by a water bottle stuck in the netting high above the Knoch gym floor.

For most of the season, they tried to get it down, throwing volleyballs — among other things — at it in an attempted to dislodge the irksome bottle.

Finally, they succeeded.

“It was too funny because we were trying to get this bottle down for months and could never get it,” Armahizer said. “When we got it, we were like, 'Oh my God, what's in it?'”

It turned out to be Gatorade and Armahizer's teammate, Abby Kopac, kept it for posterity.

“(She) still has it in her room as a joke,” Armahizer said. “It was the funniest thing to us.”

That determination to free the bottle from the netting mirrored that of Armahizer and her team on the volleyball court.

More than a year later, they capped the season with a PIAA 3A championship.

Armahizer, the 6-foot heart and soul of the team in the middle, also capped her senior campaign with the 2017 Butler Eagle Girls Volleyball Player of the Year Award.“It's an amazing feeling,” Armahizer said of winning the state title and the player of the year. “I would not have wanted to go out any other way.”A full story and the Butler Eagle Girls Volleyball Honor Roll appeared in the Butler Eagle.