Fort Cherry’s wild win earns spot in semifinals
Members of the Fort Cherry volleyball team celebrate a point during the fifth and decisive set of Tuesday’s match against Our Lady of the Sacred Heart at Peters Township High School. The Rangers rallied for a 3-2 victory.
Fort Cherry’s Hannah Greene spikes a ball during Tuesday’s match.
Fort Cherry’s Alyssa Ersek shouts out as the Rangers score a point during the third set.
Fort Cherry’s Shannon Relihan returns the ball in the fourth set.
McMURRAY – After losing the first two games and being pushed to the brink of elimination in the WPIAL playoffs Thursday night, the Fort Cherry High School girls volleyball team could have taken the easy way out of the postseason. The Rangers could have packed it in, called it a good season and taken satisfaction in knowing they had achieved their first two goals for the season.
Last year, that would have been a good option.
This season, however, quitting is not an option for Fort Cherry.
The Rangers proved as much when they rallied for a thrilling and stunning 21-25, 21-25, 25-12, 25-12, 15-3 victory over Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in the Class A quarterfinals at Peters Township High School.
The win sends fourth-seeded Fort Cherry (16-1) to the semifinals Thursday against top-seeded Greensburg Central Catholic, which swept Carmichaels, and assured the Rangers of playing at least two more games. The WPIAL finals and third-place consolation – the latter a PIAA play-in game – are scheduled for Saturday.
“I think what happened was, Hannah Greene, our captain, during the huddle before the third game, said, ‘If we want to play on Saturday, then we have to realize that it’s not a given; it’s something that’s earned,'” said Fort Cherry libero Alyssa Ersek. “That’s what changed the game for us.”
The Rangers got the message.
It also helped that Fort Cherry started handling the ball better, began doing a better job of setting for Greene and its other hitters, Shannon Relihan, Paige Cousins and Agnes Bedillion, and finally covered the deep corners on defense. That combination proved to be enough to spark a memorable comeback.
“One thing these girls have done all season when they’ve been down is fight back,” Fort Cherry coach Jackie Artim said. “Last year, when we got down, we wouldn’t fight back. But this year, when we’ve been down five or six points, we’ve gotten the job done.”
Fort Cherry started its comeback in the third game, forging a quick 12-4 lead after consecutive aces by freshman setter Jadyn Hartner, who had 27 assists.
Fifth-seeded OLSH (16-2) closed to within 12-8 before Greene, who dominated play with 19 kills, 14 blocks and an impressive 23 digs, served four consecutive points to make it 17-8. The Rangers cruised to a 25-12 win in the third game and matched the score in the fourth game as the momentum swung to Fort Cherry.
By that time, the pro-Fort Cherry crowd grew louder with each point.
“We noticed that (OLSH’s Kate Tarasovich) was constantly hitting to the corner. We adjusted to that late in the third game or early in the fourth, and that’s when I knew we had ’em,” Ersek said.
With the Rangers’ confidence growing, they reeled off 12 of the first 13 points of the fifth game to beat OLSH for the second time this season. The collapse by OLSH was finalized when the Chargers’ setter made a routine set to an outside hitter, but the ball fell harmlessly to the court a few feet from the net without any OLSH player making an attempt to play it. That gave Fort Cherry a 9-1 lead.
Relihan played a strong game at the net with four kills and eight blocks, but it was Greene, a Cleveland State recruit, who made the difference.
“We served well in the first two games and got them out of their system. They had trouble getting (Greene) the ball,” OLSH coach Mike McDonald said. “If she doesn’t get the ball, then they’re very similar to a lot of teams. It’s when she gets the ball that she’s the difference-maker. It seemed like that third game she won all by herself. She made all the plays, all the blocks.”
Fort Cherry knows the competition gets tougher at this point as Greensburg Central Catholic has made five trips to the WPIAL finals and won two championships in the last nine years. This is rare territory for a school from Washington County, which has been in the volleyball doldrums for the past decade.
“We talk about that,” Artim said. “When we won the section last year, it was only the third section title in school history. The first goal this year was to repeat. We lost in the first round of the playoffs each of the last two years, so the next goal was to advance in the playoffs. We’ve done that. Now, we’re playing with house money. We’re more relaxed. The goal now is to get to the WPIAL final.”