PIAA CLASS AAA VOLLEYBALL

Lion tamers

Greater Latrobe outlasts State College to advance to pool play

Gordon Brunskill

EBENSBURG — There will be no home-court advantage for the State College boys' volleyball team this weekend. Greater Latrobe is crashing the party.

CDT/Melissa Doss

State College's Chris Rose (8) and Trevor Stark (38) work together to get the ball over the net against LaTrobe High School during a game at Central Cambria High School on Tuesday, May 26, 2009. CDT/Melissa Doss

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In a match as tight as the final score would indicate, the Wildcats held off the Little Lions and took advantage of their errors for a four-set victory in the first round of the PIAA Class AAA tournament Tuesday night at Central Cambria High School.

Latrobe’s 28-26, 23-25, 29-27, 25-17 victory puts it in quarterfinal pool play at Penn State’s Multi-Sport Facility on Friday.

“I knew State College was a tough team,” said Wildcats coach Drew Vosefski, whose team was a state semifinalist in Class AA in 2007. “We didn’t beat them. We outlasted them in this match.”

State College (16-1) got big production from Chris Rose, who had 20 kills, and Trevor Stark, who added 15 kills and five blocks, but the team also struggled with 40 unforced errors in serving, ball-handing and hitting.

“We had too many players play mediocre games,” coach Kim-Li Kimel said. “After having such a great regular season, the mediocre performance tonight stings. These guys are really disappointed because they know they should have and could have played a better game.”

Andy Foard gave out 48 assists and James Burke posted 10 digs, while Conor Kelly and Cliff Rupert each added two blocks.

Latrobe (14-5), the third-place team out of District 7, was paced by the powerful left arm of Collin Sherwin, who had 24 kills and six blocks.

“He was their go-to guy and he did his job,” said junior outside hitter Kerem Demirci, who had six kills and an ace to open the match. “He went over our block a bunch of times and did well.”

The team also got 13 digs from Jonathan Hue and 42 assists and eight kills from setter Mark DeDiana. The fact that the Wildcats’ setter was second on the team in kills showed a little of where the Little Lions were getting burned, with the senior quickly putting the second ball down on the other side of the net.

“That’s senior leadership — knowing when to do it at the right time,” Vosefski said. “Mark’s been a very crafty player. Our advantage there is he’s a great offensive player too.”

DeDiana also directed an offense that played a very fast tempo, whoever was taking the swings.

“Their offense in general is very quick,” Kimel said. “Our guys are trying to get the jump on the block for a quick offense, and that gave the setter a few more opportunities to drop the ball on us.”

Kimel and her team have a long list of where things went wrong. There were 16 errors, including the final two points, in the first set, then they saw one of their most emotional plays of the night reversed by another error in the third set.

Rupert, Foard and Rose had just built a huge triple block on Sherwin to tie the set at 24-24, after facing down three set points, and the team was bouncing around the court with excitement. On the next point, however, Foard was caught in the net on an attempted block. The teams traded a few more points, and the Little Lions did have one set point, but Latrobe for the final two points from the usual sources ---a Sherwin hammer down the line and a DeDiana quick kill.

The fourth set was tight to 11-11 before the Wildcats ran off five straight, three of which came from Sherwin kills, and the Little Lions knew they were sunk.

“We weren’t generating consistent offense,” Kimel said. “We were giving them roll shots and free balls left and right, and any team at this level, you’re just asking for it. You cannot give them a free ball and win a game. Our offense was so disconnected, and there were too many times we were sending over bail-out balls or free balls.”

State College will bring back five of its seven starters next season, but the Little Lions know they had a very real chance to be playing on the Penn State campus this weekend.

“It’s sad it has to end this way,” Demirci said. “These are the losses that hurt the most.”