Penn-Trafford girls’ volleyball defeats Bethel Park in first round of WPIAL playoffs

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P-T senior Elle Visco serves the ball to the Black Hawks.

     Advancing to WPIAL quarterfinals for their third straight season, Penn-Trafford’s girls’ volleyball team clinched the win over No. 11 Bethel Park Black Hawks on Tuesday, Oct. 24 in a 3-1 set victory at Penn-Trafford High School. Seniors Elle Visco and Ella Dindak led the sixth-seeded Warriors, along with support from junior Kylie Anthony. 

     The match began smoothly for the home Warriors, with a 2-0 set lead, but seniors Essie George and Gabby Gealey from Bethel Park ended P-T’s hopes for a shutout. The third set remained close throughout, eventually leading to a tie at 23-23, but a double hit from P-T and a crowd-roaring kill from Black Hawk’s Gealey resulted in a third-set loss.

     “We can’t get down. We have to stay in the game,” Visco said, remembering her thoughts during the huddle after the third set. 

Maci Hohman, a senior at Penn-Trafford, returns the ball.

     P-T didn’t let the momentum shift last for long; the Warriors battled back and won the first nine out of 10 points in the fourth set. A series of kills for the Warriors from seniors Olivia Pepple and Elle Visco carried the team to 24-18 in the fourth set until Dindak won the last point with a fierce kill.

      Visco shone throughout the game and totaled 13 kills and four aces as an outside hitter.

     “It’s playoffs, so everyone had a lot more energy and it was much more exciting,” Visco said.  

     The Warriors never lost the lead in the second set, and a block from freshman Ella McDonald sealed the Warrior’s 25-15 second set win.

      The first set was similar to the second, ending in a 25-17 Warrior victory. Anthony played a prominent role, with six kills in the first set. Her biggest move was stopping the Black Hawk’s three-point streak with a point-winning block following a diving save from P-T’s Gabriella Spena.

     The match was mostly clean, with few violations — the largest being a pause midway through the last point of the match when P-T’s student section began waving phone flashlights.

     Penn-Trafford boosts their record to 12-3 and will continue in the Class 4A WPIAL playoffs. They play away at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 26, against No. 3 seed Canon-McMillan.

Annabelle Aquino, Copy Editor