MECHANICSBURG – Spring-Ford girls volleyball’s first-ever trip to the PIAA final did not finish with a victory Saturday night. But the team’s lone senior, Lauren Angelucci knew the Rams gave everything they had in trying to end North Allegheny’s reign atop Class 4A.
“Honestly, we put it all on that court,” Angelucci said. “And I’m so proud of everyone cause that’s how we ended. This is the first time in school history that we’ve ever made it to state finals and it’s just, incredible feeling, so I’m really just proud of everyone.”
Spring-Ford came out charging at Cumberland Valley High School, flipping the opening set with a 13-point run and taking the lead in the match with a 25-19 victory.
“We certainly came out, smacked them in the mouth, and I think that woke ‘em up,” Rams coach George Fuller said. “All the teams that we played this year that are that caliber or close it’s the same thing, we come out and we jump on ‘em and surprise ‘em and that wakes ‘em up a little bit and they were like ‘Oh Spring-Ford can play.’
The next two sets were tight battles but North Allegheny found a way late in both to pull wins. In the fourth, the Tigers took control early and pulled away, giving Spring-Ford silver as North Allegheny won its eighth consecutive PIAA-4A championship with a 3-1 (19-25, 25-21, 25-19, 25-16) victory.
“We kept with them a good amount but just our closing ability, they were a really good team,” said Angelucci, who holds Spring-Ford’s career kills record and will continue her volleyball career at the University of Scranton. “We knew that coming in here so honestly just going back to we just put it all out so what happened, happened.”
Spring-Ford’s first trip to the PIAA tournament came last season when it reached the quarterfinals before falling to Unionville.
This year’s Rams entered the District 1-4A tournament seeded 12th in a field of 24 sides but earned the district’s fifth and final state berth with a few upsets – knocking off No. 5 Pennridge in the second round then in playbacks besting both No. 8 Downingtown East and No. 6 Plymouth Whitemarsh.
The Rams (21-9) doubled the program’s PIAA win total by topping District 1 champ Unionville in the first round then added two more with victories over Parkland in the quarters then Central Dauphin in the semifinals. Saturday, Spring-Ford took its best shot at stopping North Allegheny’s dynasty but could only grab the first set from the Tigers, who claimed their 11th state title.
“I said ‘Ladies this is the last volleyball match for this season in the entire state, there’s something to be said for the fact that we’re playing in that,’” Fuller said. “It stings, there’s no question that it stings. And last year when we made states that got a little bit of a taste of it, and we had a goal to make it further in states this year.”
“I think we set our main goal to get to the final four or make it to the semis and it was just unbelievable when we beat Central Dauphin last week. I still don’t think the kids understand what this accomplishment really means.”
North Allegheny started Saturday’s match with an ace, the Tigers grabbing the first set’s opening three points and holding the lead until Spring-Ford found a spark and proceeded to rip off 13 straight points.
“We kept thinking it’s states we really have nothing to lose,” Spring-Ford junior Lila Olsen said. “Worst place is second place so we might as well just try our hardest, be aggressive. So I think once we got those aggressive plays that’s when we started to get some more momentum, just keep pushing.”
The Rams’ run began with them trailing 11-7, Spring-Ford pulling even on a block while Olsen putting a ball into the back left corner for a 12-11 edge. The Rams won the next point to go up two and force a North Allegheny timeout.
That, however, did not blunt Spring-Ford surge, the Rams collecting the next seven before the Tigers called another timeout with the margin 20-11.
“That was all about aggressive serving,” Fuller said. “We had one player that was in a zone serving aggressively and you try to make sure that the team understands during timeout or between sets that you can’t count on those kinds of runs in every set.
“We were on the positive end of it that first set, but you can’t count on that and then when you’re in a dogfight you got to be able to get more one serve and side out, you’ve got to be able to string a couple serves together. And that’s where I think we struggled a bit, we couldn’t keep the serves.”
North Allegheny came back to within four twice, the last time at 22-18 but Spring-Ford took consecutive points to go up 24-18 and proceeded to win the set 25-19.
“I think they weren’t ready for us to come out as hard as we did,” Olsen said. “So we just kept hitting the spots that we knew were open, especially that deep corner. So we just kept trying to go there.”
North Allegheny started the second set with fourth straight points but Spring-Ford responded by taking the next four. The Rams trailed 12-9 before putting together another 4-0 run to go ahead in the set for the first time at 13-12.
The Tigers, however, made it Spring-Ford’s only lead, winning the next four points to go up 16-13 then extending their advantage to 19-14 before the Rams called a timeout.
Spring-Ford rallied to within 20-19 after a Mackenzie Bi ace but North Allegheny got some breathing room by taking the next two – a Mackenzie Jones ace making it 22-19. The Rams won the following point but the Tigers held to claim a 25-21 victory to knot the match 1-1.
In the third set, North Allegheny used four straight points to lead 12-9 but Spring-Ford replied with a 5-0 run for a 14-12 edge. The Tigers took the next three to lead 15-14 before the Rams twice had a one-point advantages at 16-15 then 17-16.
North Allegheny broke an 18-18 tie with two straight points. Spring-Ford closed to within 20-19 but the Tigers capped the set with five-point burst to grab the match lead with a 25-19 win.
“I tried to tell the team in the fourth set, they’re strategy was feed (Molly) Robertson, find her wherever she’s at on the court,” Fuller said. “Sets two and three, they were spreading it around quite a bit, we still didn’t have an answer for the middles , we were a step slow there but in that fourth set, she’s a fantastic player for sure.”
Even at five in the fourth set, North Allegheny took the lead for good with six straight points. Three times Spring-Ford cut the margin to four, the last at 14-10 but the Tigers pulled away with a 9-3 run to go up 23-13, eventually winning 25-16.
“We realized we’re an amazing team, this is a huge accomplishment and although a lot of us are upset, we got this far, it’s amazing,” said Olsen of the Rams’ second-place finish. “Hopefully next year we can end out on top.”
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