When it came to the Hopewell Vikings girls volleyball team, the third time was not the charm for Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.
For the third time this season, the Chargers came up short in head-to-head competition, falling to the Vikings Tuesday night in the WPIAL Class 2A tournament semifinals played at Peters Township High School.
Hopewell, which beat OLSH twice in section play – the Chargers’ only two section losses in 14 matches – prevailed by scores of 25-15, 25-22 and 25-23.
With the win, the Vikings advance to play 11th-seeded Avonworth – a team that OLSH beat twice during section play – in Saturday’s WPIAL championship match. Hopewell will be making its second straight appearance in the WPIAL title match.
The fourth-seeded Chargers, now 15-4, remain alive in their bid to move on to the PIAA tournament, however, as they will play No. 2 seed Waynesburg Central in a third-place consolation match at 6 p.m. Thursday at Peters Township High School. Waynesburg Central lost for the first time all season in Tuesday night’s other semifinal, falling in five sets to Avonworth.
The top three finishers in the Class 2A tournament earn berths in the PIAA tournament.
After dropping the first set Tuesday night, OLSH found itself trailing 17-10 in the second set. But the Chargers would not go down easily.
Back-to-back aces by Leah Parker capped a 7-2 run that pulled them to within 19-17. A block by Frankie Schlatterer helped OLSH climb to within a point at 21-20, and the Chargers were within a point at 23-22 before the Vikings scored two straight points to take the set.
OLSH mounted a similar rally in the third and final set, only to fall short. Trailing 22-12 at one point, the Chargers roared back to pull to within a point at 24-23 before Hopewell closed it out.
OLSH coach Mike McDonald said he felt like Hopewell had its way with the Chargers all night.
“We committed a lot of unforced errors on our side to make the night very difficult,” he said.
McDonald said his team needs to play better against Waynesburg. “We need to be better on serve receive and we need to serve tougher,” he said. “We also need to cut down on our hitting errors.”
Lola Garner and Leah Parker led the Chargers with eight kills apiece. Garner added 12 digs while Parker had six aces and four digs. Sophia Wasko contributed 15 digs while Carmella Rippole had 13 assists and nine digs.
Hockey
Montour 5, North Catholic 4
Trey Varga registered a hat trick and Talon Bruce Miller snapped a 4-4 tie with less than 3 minutes to play in the game to lead the Spartans past the Trojans Monday night in a PIHL contest at Cleaview Arena at the RMU Island Sports Center.
Montour jumped to a 1-0 lead on Dylan Hogue’s goal eight minutes into the first period but North Catholic answered with a pair of goals before the end of the period.
The first of Varga’s three goals tied the score in the second period, and after North Catholic went in front 3-2, Varga scored back-to-back goals to give Montour a 4-3 lead.
But Samuel Langer answered less than 40 seconds later for North Catholic, evening the score at 4-4.
That set the stage for Miller, who scored 14:41 into the final period to help Montour improve to 1-3-0-1-0 in Varsity Blue play
Bradek Kulak picked up a pair of assists for Montour while Donnie Seremak, Niko Sikorski, Aidan Jennings and Varga each added one.
Canon-McMillan 3, Moon Area 2
The Big Macs used goals from Grayson Costa and Elliot Moser in the final five minutes of play to erase a 2-1 deficit and hand the Tigers their first loss of the season Tuesday in a PIHL contest at Printscape Arena at Southpoint.
After a scoreless first period, Canon-McMillan took a 1-0 lead in the sixth minute of play in period No. 2 on Brayden Edgar’s goal. But Moon answered, scoring twice within a span of 47 seconds on goals by Gio Thompson and LJ Defilippo to take a 2-1 lead with less than five minutes to play in the period.
Costa then tied the game with a little less than five minutes to play and Moser netted the game-winner with less than two minutes remaining for the Big Macs.
Moon dropped to 4-1-1-1-0 with the loss.
GIRLS SOCCER
Moon Area will host Plum at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 29, in the battle for third place in the WPIAL Class 3A tournament. The winner of the match will advance to the PIAA tournament along with the two teams lined up to play in the tournament championship game – Fox Chapel and South Fayette.
No. 2 seed South Fayette handed third-seeded Moon a 4-1 defeat Monday night, snapping the Tigers’ 14-game win streak and leaving the Tigers 18-2 on the season.
Plum, the No. 4 seed, fell to top seed Fox Chapel in Monday’s other semifinal.
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