Oct 25, 2012 4 min read

MCMURRAY – Down seven points in the fourth game of a WPIAL Class AAA first-round match against No. 10 seed Bethel Park Wednesday night, the Peters Township High School girls volleyball team never panicked. Instead, the seventh-seeded Indians rallied to score six straight points, and 15 of the final 20, to win the game and the match, 25-20, 20-25, 25-19, 25-22. “We knew we had fight left in us, and we had to prove it,” said senior Lauren Tassone, who finished with five kills, including one that went cross-court and nicked the left sideline to give the Indians a 24-22 lead in the fourth game. Plenty of other seniors contributed, too, as setter Kelly Johnson had 34 assists and seven blocks; middle blocker Lauren Belack finished with seven kills and eight blocks; and Shiloh Simonson, who earned the winning point with an ace, contributed a team-high 12 kills and nine digs. Peters Township (12-1) advances to the WPIAL quarterfinals and will play No. 2 North Allegheny Tuesday, site and time to be determined. The Indians won the first game after holding a small lead most of the way, and right-side hitter Brooke Lininger clinched it with a left-handed kill that she tucked inside the back right corner. No. 10 Bethel Park (9-4) won the second game behind the powerful hitting of Stacey Kazalas, who had seven of her game-high 15 kills during the stretch, but Peters Township responded by winning nine of the first 11 points in the third. “When we weren’t playing as well as we would have hoped, we just kept playing together and kept our composure,” Peters Township coach Ashley Green said. Simonson had a different take, blaming the side of the court – ironically the same side where the Indians clinched. “We need to wash it or something. It always brings us bad luck,” she said. After trailing, 17-10, the Indians scored on a Bethel Park service error and a Simonson kill. Belack teamed with Johnson on a block and also had one of her own to go along with a soft kill during the Indians’ comeback. Johnson also helped things along with a jump-float serve that looked almost like a knuckleball and dropped in front of the Bethel Park defense to give Peters Township a 23-20 lead. “Once we got a few points ahead, we started to think that we could do this,” Simonson said. “They started freaking out on their serve/receive, making unforced errors, and I think that’s when we knew we had them.” Char-Houston wins first playoff game Chartiers-Houston earned the first playoff win in school history in the early match, a three-game sweep of Frazier in the Class A first round that took a little more than an hour to complete. Game scores were 25-11, 25-11, 25-19. Lacey Levers had a dominant all-around game with 10 kills, five assists, 14 digs, 22 service points and nine blocks. Fellow senior Piper McLaughlin added 12 assists, four blocks and six digs, while Tori Foster contributed seven kills, six blocks and nine digs. No. 9 seed Chartiers Houston (13-2) advanced to the quarterfinals and will face No. 1 Greensburg Central Catholic Tuesday, site and time to be determined. The win comes two years after Chartiers-Houston was swept by South Side Beaver in the first round of the playoffs. “Last time we were here we got killed, so that kind of brought back some memories,” Lacey Levers said. “But we knew if we stuck together, whether we won or lost, we would be happy with the outcome.” After winning the first two games fairly easily over the Section 5-A champion Commodores, the teams were tied at 18 in the third game before Chartiers-Houston closed things out behind a kill and a block from Foster and four Frazier errors. “I think we made some errors last time, both on the court and on the bench,” said first-year Bucs coach Lori Levers, who was an assistant on that 2010 team. “I think we were able to turn that around this year and focus on our strengths, work on our weaknesses. We ran the ball every which way we could. It wasn’t just a middle attack or an outside attack; everybody did their part.”