Brian Hagberg
MEADVILLE, Pa. – Sometimes one play can change the entire course of a game.
That was certainly true during the District 10 Class 3A Volleyball Semifinal between Villa Maria and Warren Thursday night.
With the match tied at 1-1 and Villa leading 12-8 in the third, the Victors and Dragons battled for a point in a volley that seemed like it would never end. But end it did, with Villa getting the point to take a 13-8 lead.
It was all Villa from that point as the Victors won the final two sets to advance to the D10 championship with a 3-1 (21-25, 25-21, 25-13, 25-8) win over the Dragons.
The play shifted all the momentum to Villa as Warren scored just 13 points the rest of the way.
It was Warren that seized the momentum early, however. Villa led the first set, 18-14, but the Dragons responded with an 11-3 run to close it out and take a 1-0 lead in the match.
The loss seemed to serve as motivation as the Victors jumped out to a 7-2 lead to start the second. The Dragons battled and got to within a point at 16-15, but Villa answered with a 5-1 run to take a 21-16 lead. Warren got back to within two, 23-21, but Villa scored the final two points to even the match, 1-1.
The teams battled through the early portion of the third set. Villa looked poised to pull away, but couldn’t build more than a 4-point advantage until the long rally set the stage for the final 1 1/2 sets.
Karlee Kieklak led the Victors with 15 kills. She also added three digs, a block and two aces. Smith finished with 12 kills, five blocks and two aces. Bella Taraski and Karlee Berchtold both had seven kills.
Maddie Parks had four kills, five assists, four blocks and three aces. Sienna Dauer and Willa Regal ran the offense with 21 and 17 assists, respectively.
Warren’s Katie Madigan finished her career with another monster game, 22 kills, 20 digs and two aces. Carly Beers and Kylie Fehlman each had nine kills, while Ellee Irwin had five kills and 10 digs and Summer Lucks had 22 digs.
Halee Mineweaser ran the offense with 39 assists and added eight digs.
