NAVB advances to State Championship for 8th straight year

North Allegheny traveled to Altoona High School on Tuesday afternoon to take part in the PIAA Semifinals. For the fifth time in six seasons, the Tigers and the Black Knights of Landisville Hempfield met in the PIAA playoffs. Entering the match, Landisville Hempfield was 20-0 and it looked to be another tough contest for NA. North Allegheny started strong and completely dominated the Black Knights with a clean sweep by set scores of 26-24, 25-15 and 25-19.

Landisville Hempfield jumped out of the gates in the first set taking a 4-1 lead. North Allegheny battled back to take a 6-5 lead. The Tigers started to take control of the set with leads of 18-13 and 20-15. Momentum shifted quickly, and the Black Knights went on a 6-0 run to take a 21-20 lead. It got real dicey for NA when they trailed 24-23 in the set, but three straight points out of a timeout won the set for the Tigers and gave them a 1-0 lead. Bridgit Murphy finished off the set with a kill.

The second set was all North Allegheny as they jumped out to a 20-9 lead. Landisville Hempfield would work their way back into the set to make it respectable but the Tigers rolled to a 25-15 win in set two to take a 2-0 advantage.

In the third set, the Black Knights were getting desperate and came out with a lot of energy jumping out to a 7-4 lead. Landisville Hempfield would have the lead for most of the set until the Tigers took control at 15-14. NA would never give the lead back, outscoring the Black Knights 10-5 down the stretch and completed the sweep with a Reagan Riordan ace to win the final set 25-19 and take the match 3-0.

Murphy was named the Wright Automotive Player of the Game. She finished with seven kills and four blocks. Molly Robertson had 14 kills for the Tigers to go along with 17 digs. Keely McMahon-Regan added eight kills. She also dished out 17 assists and served up two aces. Alicia Mokube pitched in seven kills and three blocks. Mack Jones and Riordan had great nights serving each with three aces. Jones added 12 assists and six digs while Riordan had six digs. Macey Casten had 13 digs on the back line for North Allegheny.

The Tigers advance to the PIAA Championship for the eighth consecutive season. They will take on Spring-Ford, the fifth place finisher out of District 1, on Saturday at 6:00 p.m. from Cumberland Valley High School. This game will be broadcasted on the North Allegheny Sports Network.