P-O passes tough test

Jon Christoff

- For the CDT

PHILIPSBURG — Philipsburg-Osceola volleyball coach Mick Dininno knew his team was going to be tested in Thursday's District 6 Class AA semifinal match with Penn Cambria.

After a sluggish start led to a one-all match, the Lady Mounties responded in the last two sets to put away a pesky Lady Panther squad and advance to the D-6 final for the second season in a row.

P-O took the match 25-18, 26-28, 25-14 and 25-17 and will face Somerset, which swept Bellefonte 3-0 earlier in the evening.

“I wasn’t happy in Games 1 and 2 because we had a lot of unforced errors,” said Dininno. “I think in Games 3 and 4 we cleaned things up a little bit. … I think 11 of their points (in the first) were unforced errors with hitting errors and four missed serves. Game 2 was even worse than that because I think we had a six-or seven-point lead. We needed two or three to close out and we lost — that’s not typical of us. I wasn’t happy.”

After Penn Cambria slowed down the Lady Mountie hitting in the second set, P-O got a spark from reserve Hunter Schnarrs in the third.

Schnarrs came off the bench and finished with six kills in the final two games, helping to neutralize the attack from Penn Cambria middle hitter Stephanie Basile, who had a team-high 16 kills.

Basile had just six kills the final two sets. “Hunter Schnarrs came in off the bench in Game 3 and got a big kill off the bat,” Dininno said. “Even in Game 4 she had a couple of big kills. She’s a good, solid volleyball player. The nice thing for us is she can play weakside or outside, and I’m really impressed with her coming off the bench.”

While the Lady Panthers had Basile, the Lady Mounties had Harpster, who finished with a sea-son- high 25 kills.

Harpster set the tone early with seven in the opening game, and closed strong with six in the fourth to put P-O in the finals, where it’ll face Somerset for the second year in a row.

“It was a good match for us,” said Dininno. “We need to be pushed and tested like that. I told the girls this was probably going to be the best match we’ve played all year. By all means, it was. I think Penn Cambria played us well. They served us tough and played good defense by digging a lot of balls up and keeping them in play.”

Kelsey Gonder had 42 assists in the match for the Lady Mounties, who got eight kills and seven digs from Aleksa Pollick and 12 digs from Julianne Gray.

Gonder led the way with 16 service points, and Harpster added nine.

P-O will travel to the Altoona Fieldhouse on Saturday for the title tilt. The match is set to begin at 3 p.m.

Somerset tops Bellefonte

The Lady Red Raiders couldn’t work the same magic they did on Tuesday, coming back from a two-game deficit for a dramatic win.

Somerset jumped out to a quick lead and was able to stave off Bellefonte’s comeback bid, 25-17, 25-22 and 25-20.

“We’ve come back multiple times this year … maybe not being down 2-0, but being down on the brink of elimination,” said Bellefonte coach Chad Weight. “It’s not like we weren’t used to it and it’s not like we hadn’t done it. In my opinion, Games 2 and 3 could have gone either way. They didn’t go for us and that’s the way it goes.”

The Lady Raiders struggled in the serving game in the early going, as the Lady Eagles served six aces in each of the first two sets and took advantage of six Bellefonte serving errors.

Somerset’s Emily Foust helped her squad close the match out with a five-point run in the last set.

“Defensively, we hung with them all the way to the end,” Weight said. “If we get a couple of breaks, I thought they could’ve gone either way. We couldn’t stop the bleeding when they got on three-, four-or five-point runs, and it was critical to stop those runs. We just waited too long to get a sense of urgency.”

Bellefonte (16-4) was led by Kaity Clouser’s 10 kills, while Jena Matter chipped in with eight and had four aces. Jerrica Harvey had 12 digs in the defeat and Emily Putnam dished out 18 assists.