CRANBERRY TWP — Reese Hazelton, a huge ice pack strapped to her powerful right shoulder, walked to greet friends and family inside the North Catholic gym Tuesday night.

Her smile beamed bright and warm enough to melt that ice.

The freshman on the Philipsburg-Osceola volleyball team also melted away any chance North Catholic had at defending its PIAA Class 2A title with a dominating 37-kill performance in a three-sets-to-one win in the state semifinals.

Hazelton had 20 of those kills in the first two sets alone — 25-15 and 25-20 victories. After North Catholic hung on to win the third set, 26-24, the freshman capped off her big night with eight kills down in the fourth set, a 25-20 win for the Mounties.

“She's really good,” said North Catholic coach Amanda Fetter, who had her own dominant player a year ago on the way to the state championship in Dominique Felix. “She's smart and she plays well. We were on the other side of that last year, so we know what that means.”

Hazelton's 37 kills were right around her average in the postseason.

“She's been up in the high 30s all through the playoffs,” said Philipsburg-Osceola coach Dave Eckberg. “She knew she was going to get a heavy workload. She eats, sleeps and breathes volleyball.”

The start was just what Eckberg and Philipsburg-Osceola (20-0) were looking for in another playoff road trip.

North Catholic (18-1) fell behind 10-1 in the first set and never recovered.

The second set was more of the same as the Trojanettes stared at a 6-1 hole.

North Catholic came into the match with losses in just three sets all season.

The Trojanettes' first lead didn't come until early in the third set. Still, Philipsburg-Osceola managed to get to match point at 24-23, but was unable to close the deal.

A 4-0 start in the fourth set for North Catholic had the Trojanettes thinking epic comeback.

“They are a great group of kids,” Fetter said. “They fight back and have fought all year long. I wasn't surprised.”

But Hazelton took over again, getting her second wind at just the right time.

“I think she lost her legs a little bit and got a little tip-happy,” Eckberg said. “She found a way to fight through it there.”

Eckberg said he certainly did not want to see a fifth set.

“Volleyball is all about momentum,” the coach said. “Credit to (North Catholic). They lost a lot of seniors from last year. The one thing I hoped we'd have that we'd be a little more battle-tested. We played Northern Cambria, the two-time defending (Class A) champions. We got up 2-0 and we thought that might be it, but they didn't just come back, they stormed back.”

Fetter lamented the slow start.

“Especially in the state semifinals,” Fetter said. “When you get this far, everyone is good.

“I feel like we played not to lose and they played to win,” Fetter added.

Sophomore Ally Feczko had 19 kills for North Catholic, which had a slew of underclassmen play key roles this season.

“If I'm being honest, I'm just glad we even got a chance to play at all this season,” Fetter said.