Once again this week, the MSA Sports Network will recap the WPIAL boys and girls soccer postseason matches as well as WPIAL girls volleyball playoff matches that were broadcast that evening on the MSA Sports Network. We continue with reports from Girls Volleyball Semifinals action from Thursday, November 5th.

Thanks to Adam Hoerner, Don Vandergrift, Sam Hall, Mike Azadian and Jonathan Whaley for their help on these recaps.

WPIAL GIRLS VOLLEYBALL CLASS AAA SEMIFINALS:

Mount Lebanon Blue Devils 3 - Pine-Richland Rams 1
Pine-Richland (11-4) took down one undefeated team in the WPIAL Quarterfinals on Tuesday night at Chartiers Valley High School in a thrilling five-game contest. The Rams returned to the scene of the crime to face another perfect club in the semifinals on Thursday, but Mount Lebanon (13-0) would be too much for them in a 3-1 victory. The Blue Devils stormed out to a 25-15 game one decision. Pine-Richland would answer with an early lead in game two, but failed to hold it, and Lebo battled back to a 25-20 triumph. The Rams would not go quietly into the night, winning a thrilling third set by a 26-24 final with an ace from sophomore Hanna Muzzonigro. The Pine-Richland faithful decided to talk some smack as game four started, but they
may have gone a little too far as the Blue Devils put on their game faces, took an early lead and never looked back. Senior Kate Begor picked up the match point in a 25-16 win that sent them to the championship match this Saturday from Chartiers Valley against the Seneca Valley Raiders. Junior Julia McCabe picked up 15 kills in the losing effort while sophomore Caitlyn Scioscia had 10 along with two aces. For Mount Lebanon, senior Olivio Grattan starred with 14 kills, backed up by 11 each from senior Alexandra Taylor and sophomore Laura Dadowski and 10 kills for senior Rebecca Riemer.

Seneca Valley Raiders 3 - North Allegheny Tigers 2
Seneca Valley rallied from a 2-1 deficit to win the final two games and defeat North Allegheny, 3-2, in the WPIAL Class AAA semifinals at North Hills on Thursday night. NA took a 13-12 lead in game one on a service ace by senior setter Logan Meinert and went on to a 25-19 victory in game one. The Raiders came back strong in game two to take a 25-12 victory behind the hitting of senior MH Kelly Treser, sophomore OH Meghan Drambel and sophomore MH Cate Seman. In the third game, the Raiders grabbed a 22-20 lead on a service ace by sophomore setter Alex Karika, but NA outscored the Raiders, 5-1, down the stretch to take a 25-23 victory. With NA up two games to one, Seneca Valley again rebounded with a 25-20 victory in game four holding off a late NA rally. Again, it was Drambel, Treser and Seman doing most of the damage with Seman's kill giving SV the victory. In the fifth and final game, Seneca Valley took an early 4-2 lead and never trailed as Seman recorded two kills and two blocks with Treser ending the match with a kill in a 15-8 Raider win. Treser finished with 17 kills to lead the Raiders with Drambel and Seman adding 12 each. Karika posted three service aces as Seneca Valley advanced to the championship final against the #1 seed Mount Lebanon. Senior OH Leeanne Haus led NA with 15 kills and three aces with junior MB Kassie Freyermuth adding 9 kills and three blocks. Senior setter Logan Meinert finished her NA career with 8 kills, an ace and a block in addition to setting the Tiger hitters throughout the match. The defending champion Lady Tigers finished with a final record of 15-4. The MSA Sports Network will broadcast the championship match between Seneca Valley and Mount Lebanon at 6:00 pm on Saturday night live from Chartiers Valley High School.


WPIAL GIRLS VOLLEYBALL CLASS AA SEMIFINALS:

West Allegheny Indians 3 - Blackhawk Cougars 0
AA's top seed, the West Allegheny Indians swept through the Blackhawk Cougars in the semi finals Thursday night at Chartiers Valley high school to advance to the championship match Saturday afternoon on MSAsports.net. West Allegheny used a splendid night from 5'10'' senior Korin Wengryn who unofficailly had 17 kills on the night along with at least double digits in blocks to come away with the win. But they had to win a dramatic third game by a score of 33-31 before the deal was finally settled. West A senior Chelsea Katkich had several aces in the match to go along with her strong play up front as the Indians continue their defense of the WPIAL AA title winning in straight sets 25-20, 25-18, and 33-31. After the match Wengryn was clear in saying that this years Indians are on a mission, "We want it so bad, a lot of people are saying that we lost some of our best players from last year....and we can't get there and we're just trying to prove everyone wrong, because we are a great team, and we really want this." Wengryn told MSA sports after the match. They are certainly going about getting it in the right way. The 12-1 Indians will take on the Freeport Yellowjackets this Saturday at 4:00pm for the WPIAL AA championship. As always you can only get all the action right here on the MSA spports network.

Freeport Yellowjackets 3 - Mars Planets 1
These two squads came into this semifinal Class AA matchup having already accomplished firsts in the history of their respective programs by reaching the semifinal round of the WPIAL playoffs. The number two seeded Freeport Yellowjackets are led by a quartet of seniors topped by 5'10" 4-year starter, Carlie Bieranowski, 5'10" Setter/Outside Hitter, Madison Rotto, 5'10" Middle Hitter, Ashley Massart and 5'8" Opposite, Alyssa Vigliotti. As a group they proved to be too much for the Planets, terrific 6'0" Middle Hitter, Camblin Leonard and her front row running mate Outside Hitter, Camille Plesniak. It was a very closely contested match for the first three sets before the Yellowjackets ended up taking it 3 games to 1 by scores of 27-25, 17-25, 28-26 and 25-14. With the match tied at 1 set apiece the pivotal set was which team would win game three. Freeport was leading 17-14 with the Planets having Madie Hudac serving, scored 6 straight service points to take a 20-17 lead. Then with the Planets leading 21-18, Freeport ran off 5 consecutive service points with Alyssa Vigliotti toeing the service line to retake the advantage at 23-21. Mars charged back to go out in front, 24-23 but could not close the Yellowjackets out. The teams alternated scoring the next 4 points to tie the set at 26-all before Freeport tallied the last two points of the game to take the set, 28-26. The Yellowjackets scored 7 of the first 8 points in the fourth set to go ahead 7-1 and efficiently put the Planets away winning the set, 25-14. Freeport moves forward to play in their first ever WPIAL Girls Volleyball Class AA Championship match on Saturday at Chartiers Valley High School. Their opponent will be the top seed and reigning WPIAL Class AA Champions the West Allegheny Indians who swept the Blackhawk Cougars in three straight sets tonight. The Freeport girls volleyball team has tremendous fan support and the gymnasium at Chartiers Valley should be a rollicking place to be at on Saturday afternoon. Regardless of the outcome on Saturday this Freeport team and these (4) dedicated seniors in particular have already established a legacy for girls volleyball at Freeport.


WPIAL GIRLS VOLLEYBALL CLASS A SEMIFINALS:

West Shamokin Wolves 3 - Jefferson-Morgan Rockets 0
At North Hills High School the West Shamokin Wolves move into the WPIAL A Volleyball finals with an impressive 3-0 victory over the Jefferson Morgan Rockets. Both teams came in co champions of their respective sections, each with only one loss on the season. The Wolves were deemed the number one seed of the tournament and the Rockets the number four. In the first game it looked like we would be in for a long interesting match. Jefferson took the early 2-0 lead but from there it was even or one team up by 1 point until at 16-16 the 14th tie of the game West Shamokin ran off 4 straight points on a Breeana Wilson service. The Wolves went up 20-16 and never looked back winning game one 25-23. Despite making many unforced errors the Wolves had superior front line play from Junior Paige Baker. "She had her best game of the year tonite, she was a real force" said West Shamokin head coach Dan Spencer after the game. Baker had 6 kills in game one calling for teammates to set her up during play. In game 2 the Wolves would go up early 3-1 but Jefferson would fight back to tie it at 3-3. Things would stay even for a while until at 10-9 Jefferson the Wolves would again get great service from Breeana Wilson and run off 5 in a row to go up 14-10. Freshman Jill Glover was tough at the front line keeping the Rockets star Mabel Grace from spikes with great defensive play. Despite a late comeback by Jefferson, the Wolves would win game two 25-21. Into game three the Rockets would go up 5-1 and seemingly take over the game, but West Shamokin came back to tie it at 5-5, taking the heart from the Rockets. The teams stayed even until at 11-11 the wolves went on a 9-0 run on a service by Breeana Wilson to go up 20-11 on their way to a 25-15 win. The Rockets never could god flow on offense as the spent most of the match trying to defense the powerful offense of the Wolves. Sophomore Laine Walker was another of the star front court of Jefferson on offense and defense. West Shamokin which improved to 12-1 got stronger after the first game and would not be denied a trip to the final which will be played Saturday at 2:00 PM at Chartiers Valley High School versus the Greensburg Central Catholic Centurians their section 1 rival and co champ. Jefferson Morgan falls to 13-2 and will play 2008 WPIAL A champ Beaver County Christian in a consolation match Saturday at Noon at Chartiers Valley for the right to go to the state playoffs.

Greensburg Central Catholic Centurions 3 - Beaver County Christian Eagles 0
The number two seeded Greensburg Central Catholic Centurions had too much firepower for the reigning and number three seeded Beaver County Christian School Eagles at Fox Chapel High School. The Centurions swept the Eagles in three straight sets by scores of 25-19, 25-18 and 25-18. The highlight of the night for BCC was the early lead that they started the match with when they took 7-2 and 9-4 leads over the slow starting Centurions. Once Greensburg Central Catholic took their first lead of the evening at 18-17 in the first set, they went on to win it 25-19. Greensburg Central took the lead right out of the gate in game 2 and grabbed the set, 25-18, to snatch a 2 sets to nil lead. The Centurions scored the first (4) points in game three and never trailed or were even tied in this set and cruised to another 25-18 victory. Remarkably, once the Centurions over took the Eagles in that first game at 20-19, they never fell behind again the rest of the match. Beaver County Christian could do very little to slow down the Centurions dyamic duo of 5'8" Senior, Outside Hitter, Samantha Chorney and 5'11" Freshmen, Outside Hitter, Shannon Hurley. Sophomore, 5'6" Outside Hitter, Kate Carson, kept competing hard throughout the match for the Eagles. Greensburg Central Catholic advances to Saturday's Class A WPIAL Championship match where they will face their section 1 A rival and the top seeded team in the tournament the West Shamokin Wolves. The two teams split the two regular season meetings, each winning on their homecourt. The stakes are much higher in this match and with the contest being played on a neutral court this final should turn out to be a classic.