close

Waynesburg comeback falls short

3 min read
article image -

McDONALD – What was a good season and somewhat of a return to normalcy came to an end for the Waynesburg High School volleyball team Wednesday night at South Fayette.

In the first round of the WPIAL Class 2A playoffs, the 11th-seeded Raiders fought hard in an entertaining four-set match with No. 6 Serra Catholic but ultimately fell 3-1 to finish their season with an 11-4 record.

Led by 10 kills from Jenna Revak, and four kills and four aces from Cassidy Trahan, the Eagles moved on and will play Laurel Saturday afternoon at 2.

Waynesburg coach Dan Higginbotham described the night well.

“Very up and down,” he said.

Waynesburg fought back from 18-9 down and faced the wrong end of a set-point twice before gutting out a 28-26 win in the first game, the set-point coming on an ace by Sarah Stephenson. Stephenson also had four kills in the set.

Waynesburg came out firing in the second set, taking five of the first six points, but the Eagles punched back to even up the match with a 25-22 win. The Eagles carried that momentum into set three, cruising to a commanding 25-16 victory that put them on the brink of advancing. Revak had five kills in the set to lead the Eagles.

It looked like Serra would keep cruising in set four, taking 15 of the first 20 points. But Waynesburg fought back, going on a 19-9 run and fending off a match point to tie it at 24-24.

Then, Serra got the last two points to move on and end the Raiders’ season.

Although the Raiders couldn’t complete what would have been an impressive comeback in the fourth set, Higginbotham was proud of his players for not rolling over.

“We’ve sort of made that our motto since last season, never quitting and fighting back,” he said. “We’ve done that a lot, but we just came up a little bit short. We did try to do it again. I give them a lot of credit. They could have just quit.”

A few challenges are facing the future of Waynesburg volleyball. For one, the Raiders lose five starters to graduation, adding on to four who graduated after the 2020 season. Perhaps most pressing is that since Waynesburg is the only high school in Greene County that has both soccer and volleyball, the Raiders have more of a struggle simply getting players.

“Just to get enough kids to come out and play (is hard),” Higginbotham said. “We’re having a hard time getting enough kids on the court, starting at the middle school level. Very low numbers … we need more players.”

In the nightcap, fourth-seeded South Fayette took care of Mars in three sets. Ava Leroux, daughter of popular former Pittsburgh Penguin Francois Leroux, stood out for the Lions with 15 kills.

“Ava did a great job,” South Fayette coach Scott Sundgren said. “She was moving really well at the net, had better vision than she’s had in a couple of our matches, just was really strong. She was touching really high tonight.”

The Planets put up a good joust in the first set but ultimately fell 25-23. The Lions rolled to a 25-11 win in the second before finishing off the sweep. South Fayette’s next match is against No. 5 Armstrong Saturday at 2.

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $3.75/week.

Subscribe Today