Grabbing the gold
BRIDGEVILLE — Each set of the WPIAL Class AA girls volleyball championship was decided by pivotal points down the stretch.
In the clutch moments, Freeport came through.
Sophomore outside hitter Zoe Pawlak pounded out 25 kills and the Yellowjackets prevailed with a 25-22, 25-21, 25-23 sweep of Indiana on Saturday at Chartiers Valley High School to claim the program's second WPIAL title in four years.
“Anytime you're here, it feels awful sweet. I could stay here all night,” said Freeport coach Tom Phillips. “This group is a special group to me. There are certain teams that are just close to your heart. It's just a great group of girls.
“Every single day in practice they came in to work hard and get better,” he added. “I couldn't be more proud.”
All three games in the best-of-five series were tied at 19-19 or later and Freeport always found the answer.
“It's the way we play. It's the way we practice,” said Phillips. “When we get to 20, we kick it into another gear. We play good defense. We know where we're going with the ball. We know what we have to do.
“I call it playing Freeport volleyball.”
Kills from Pawlak finished the first and final set.
On championship point, Pawlak put a solid swing on the ball. The Indians dug it up, but it sailed softly back in Pawlak's direction.
“When I first saw it, I was really excited,” said Pawlak. “I knew it was coming over and I knew I could put it down.”
Pawlak drilled it to the floor and the championship celebration began.
“The feeling is indescribable,” said the sophomore. “We really wanted it. We were scrappy enough to go for every ball and make good plays.”
Grace Ward tallied 25 assists for the Yellowjackets, while Emily Toy added 11 assists.
Alexis Schrecengost recorded a match-high 12 service points to go with six kills.The Freeport senior group of Schrecengost, Toy, Brittney Bianco, Megan Sweeny and Amanda Hewitt were freshmen when the Yellowjackets won their first WPIAL crown, which also came at the expense of Indiana.“It's absolutely amazing,” said Schrecengost. “We said coming back here, playing Indiana again my senior year, 'Let's just kick some butt and let's do this. ... We're not losing.'“We worked so hard,” she added. “We busted our butts for eight months to prepare ourselves for this moment and we came through with it.”Bianco anchored the defense at libero with numerous digs, while Sweeny recorded five kills and six service points.“I'm speechless. I have no words to describe this feeling,” said Sweeny. “We said when we were freshmen that we wanted to do the exact same thing and we accomplished it. It's amazing.”After edging Indiana 25-22 in the first set, Freeport jumped out to a 9-3 advantage in the second. However, the Indians regrouped and surged ahead for a 15-13 lead.Freeport trailed 20-19 until a Jessica Kelley kill was followed by a Pawlak ace. Kelley and Karlie Hill combined on back-to-back blocks to put the Yellowjackets ahead 24-20.Schrecengost, who attributed her team's play down the stretch to camaraderie, ended it with a kill off an assist from Toy.“Chemistry is the one thing that we have that some other teams don't,” said the senior. “Believing in each other makes a complete difference, just having each other's back.”Down 14-12 in the third set, Pawlak reeled off four consecutive kills. She also recorded the final three kills for Freeport.“She was unstoppable and I've seen her do that,” said Phillips.“I think they realize who the hot hitter is and they keep trying to set whoever that is, whether it be me, Megan, Shrek, anyone,” said Pawlak. “They kept setting me and I kept hitting it down. They set other people too, which is great because it throws the other team off, but whenever they set me, I wanted to kill it.”Natalie Cignetti paced Indiana with 16 kills, while Aaryn Gray added 11. Brianna Dillon tallied 30 assists.Although Freeport won in a sweep, it just as easily could have gone the other way. The Indians held leads of 19-17, 20-19 and 20-19 in the three sets, respectively.“Honestly, I think it was experience,” said Indiana coach Malinda Oesterling. “Freeport has been here many times. A lot of these girls have been in that situation.“Although I have a lot of seniors on my team, I only have two that have serious varsity experience,” she added. “Last year, the majority of those players were JV players and it is tough to handle that pressure when you get into these types of situation. ... Hopefully, we can learn from this.”With every set playing out competitively, Sweeny was happy it didn't go to a fourth.“It was definitely very important because we did not want to play another game,” Sweeny said. “It just puts the cherry on top of the cake to end it in three.”Freeport will take on Hopewell — a 3-2 loser to Indiana in the WPIAL semifinals — in the first round of the PIAA tournament at North Allegheny High School on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
