Fort Cherry makes up for lost time
McMURRAY – Fort Cherry and Waynesbur girls volleyball match in the preliminary round of the WPIAL Class 2A playoffs started about half an hour late Monday night, but the Rangers made up the time in earning a 3-0 sweep at Peters Township’s AHN Arena.
Fort Cherry (12-7) will travel to Quaker Valley (14-2) on Wednesday in the first round of the WPIAL Class 2A playoffs. The match is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.
The set scores were 25-12, 25-15 and 25-19.
“It was nice to come out here and win this match in a sweep, especially with us being the lower-seed team,” said first-year Fort Cherry coach Jenna Granatire. “I came from Oakland Catholic, so the coaching staff is new, but the girls have bought into our system. We haven’t played in any environment like this before. We play in very small schools.
“Our girls had some jitters, but I think they were good jitters. For some of our older players, they have been knocked out the past two years in this preliminary round, and they really wanted it.”
Waynesburg scored the first point in the opening set and was as close as trailing 6-4, but Fort Cherry went on a 9-2 run to increase its lead to 15-6. Raiders coach Dan Higinbotham took a timeout after the Rangers increased their advantage to 20-8. The two teams traded the last eight points.
“The problem was we couldn’t serve-receive good enough to get the ball up there to attack,” Waynesburg coach Dan Higinbotham said. “If you can’t pass the ball, you can’t get anything else. They are a very good team. Their defense and serve-receive is very good.”
Fort Cherry had a 5-0 lead in the second set, but Waynesburg battled back to tie the set at 6-6. The Rangers never trailed or allowed the Raiders to tie the set score. Fort Cherry went on an 8-0 run to turn a 13-11 edge into a decisive 21-11 lead before closing the set out.
Waynesburg stayed close in the third set and were down just three at 19-16, but the Rangers were able to win seven out of the next nine points to close out the match.
“Our motto is always to play one point at a time, and that was the message to the girls today,” Granatire said. “Leadership in these big matches kicks into a different level and our seniors, Jillian McCarty, Lainey Hartner and Raney Staub and Kaylee Weinbrenner, really set that tone for us.”
McCarty led Fort Cherry with 11 kills and seven digs. Teammate Jazlyn Martino had six kills. Staub had eight digs and Hartner had seven digs and seven aces.
Raiders freshman Railey Bochna had five kills and no errors. Teammate Mikalynn Good had three kills and no errors.
Waynesburg’s season comes to an end with a record of 11-8.
“We have four freshman, three that start, and they were out here playing tonight,” Higinbotham said. “As far as the score went tonight, we got better every game.”