How Bald Eagle won the PIAA state girls volleyball title

Bald Eagle Area girls volleyball won its first-ever PIAA Class 2A state championship Saturday with a three-set win over Holy Redeemer at Cumberland Valley High School.

The undefeated Eagles’ trademark resiliency showed throughout the match as they rallied from deficits and used those rallies to take over sets.

In the first set, Bald Eagle jumped out early to a 4-1 lead, but Holy Redeemer turned things quickly with a 6-0 run and eventually led 11-7 midway through the first set. The Eagles rallied late, though, thanks to an 8-1 run, to take a 23-17 lead before winning on a Lacee Barnhart kill, 25-19. Grace Hugar had 5 kills for BEA in the set.

“I’m proud to look back at all of the hard work that we’ve put in and see that we made it happen,” said Bald Eagle’s Grace Hugar. “It seems like at first there were a little jitters, but then we got at it and we were fine then.”

The teams see-sawed in the second set until the Royals went on a 7-1 run to take a 17-14 lead behind Sarah Liskowicz. BEA did what the Eagles do and bounced back, taking the set 25-23, closing it out with two aces by Elita Brown.

“This is very rewarding because we worked really hard for this all season and now we did it and we hit our goal,” said BEA’s Madison Rockey. “I know my energy is a part of it, but I think it’s important to keep the girls up all the time and that keeps us working together.”

BEA led 15-12 in the third set before closing in on a title with a 23-22 lead. Rockey clinched the match with a kill to give BEA its state title.

“That was probably one of the worst serving and offensive days we’ve had,” said Bald Eagle coach Larry Campbell. “We kind of look at hitting over .200, serving over 90%. Today we were at 89% with 9 aces and 8 errors and we hit .189 -- we hit .105 in that first set. We looked like we first-timers in a state championship game. It was very evident. A lot of hitting errors and it was sloppy.

“But you know, when you’ve got a kid like the [Grace] Hugar kid, you’ve got to jump on. Last match [she had] 16 kills and 1 error, today was 15 kills and 1 error; she’s a heckuva player.

“And Madison Rockey does an outstanding job,” Campbell said. “A lot of people watch the game and they oooh and ahhh with the blocks and kills, but they don’t appreciate what a good job that setter does. She’s physical as a blocker, she puts the ball in consistent locations, and she’s the best leader for a high school kid that I’ve had in 18 years of coaching.”

(Go to the CDT Facebook page to watch the team’s triumphant return to the school and its waiting fans after the state title.)

This story was originally published November 17, 2018 at 2:33 PM.