Rangers’ comeback against GCC falls short
McMURRAY – For a fleeting moment Thursday night, Fort Cherry High School volleyball coach Jackie Artim and senior middle hitter Hannah Greene both thought the Rangers had top-seeded and undefeated Greensburg Central Catholic right where they wanted the Centurions – in the lead.
Fort Cherry is a veteran team and used to playing tight five-game matches. The Rangers did so in the regular season against Bishop Canevin and even defeated Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in the WPIAL quarterfinals Tuesday in thrilling come-from-behind fashion after losing the first two games.
So when Fort Cherry dropped the first two games against GCC only to roar back and win the third game, Artim and Greene were thinking along the same lines.
“I thought, here we go again,” Artim admitted.
“We knew that GCC had never been challenged, so that was an advantage for us,” Greene explained. “We’ve played five games, a few weeks ago against Bishop Canevin and against OLSH. We were saying in the huddle before the fourth game, ‘Here we go again.’ But it’s always tough when you lose the first two games.”
This time, there would be no stunning comeback by the Rangers. Greensburg Central Catholic had too much Mikayla Bisignani and made too few mistakes to let the match slip away. The Centurions defeated Fort Cherry 25-18, 25-20, 26-28, 25-19 in the Class A semifinals at Peters Township High School.
“We needed to win the second game or the fourth,” Artim said. “Our energy level wasn’t where it should have been in those games.”
Fort Cherry (16-2), the No. 4 seed, played well but didn’t capitalize enough when Bisignani, the Centurions’ 6-2 middle hitter and best player, was positioned in the back line, away from the net. Fort Cherry had a scoring edge when Greene and Bisignani were pitted at the net, but GCC won the match when the two talented middle hitters rotated to the back line.
Bisignani’s serving proved critical to GCC’s success. It played key roles in each game and helped GCC overcome a 14-10 deficit in the opener.
“We didn’t know anything about GCC coming in,” Artim said. “That’s why we decided to match Hannah against (Bisignani). We didn’t know about her serve. It was hard and dropped over the net.”
Bisignani had three consecutive kills in the first set that gave GCC a 17-14 lead. The Rangers battled back to 17-17, then had five consecutive misplays in the offensive end – four with Bisignani serving – and lost the set.
GCC coach Kate McCauley called Bisignani a “complete player” but admitted it was probably the best serving game the senior has played.
GCC used a key 10-5 spurt in the middle of the second set to take a 2-0 lead. Fort Cherry, just as it did against OLSH, stormed back and won the third game 28-26. One of Shannon Relihan’s eight kills gave FC a 27-26 lead and GCC hit wide to end the set and put momentum squarely on the Rangers’ side.
At this point, Fort Cherry’s student section was loud and McCauley could feel the Centurions being pushed like they had not been before in the postseason. The third set was so intense that McCauley clutched her pen too tightly and it exploded, splattering blue ink on her hand and arm.
GCC, however, didn’t break under the pressure. The Centurions forged a 19-9 lead in the fourth and Fort Cherry could get no closer than 21-17. The win sends GCC to the title match for the sixth time.
“We didn’t communicate as well as usually do,” said Greene, who had 13 kills, eight blocks and 21 digs. “At times, we weren’t playing together and that led to more mistakes.”
Fort Cherry, which had never been past the first round of the playoffs before this season, still has more volleyball to play. The Rangers will face Frazier in the consolation game Saturday (2:30 p.m.) at Baldwin. The winner advances to the state tournament as the WPIAL’s third-place team and will play the District 9 champion in the first round of the PIAA tournament Tuesday night.
“We still have plenty to play for,” Artim said. “We can make it to the state tournament for first time in school history, so we’re not hanging our heads. We’re going to get up (Friday) and practice volleyball and get up Saturday and play for third place. The girls know that every game they play is something new for this program.”