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Northern Cambria keeps undefeated season alive

Special to the Mirror

NORTHERN CAMBRIA — The Lady Colts used a familiar formula to keep its undefeated season alive and advance to the District 6 Class 1A semifinals. Northern Cambria used aggressive serving and a well-balanced offense to overpower No. 8 seed Glendale, making its first playoff appearance since 2010, on their way to a 25-10, 25-5, 25-17 victory in front of a large crowd inside Ted Keenan Gymnasium.

“It was a super crowd here this evening. Glendale had a great showing, they brought a lot of people over. It was a real tribute to district playoff volleyball,” Northern Cambria coach Mike Hogan said. “There was a big crowd with a lot of energy from both sides. “It’s real important to get past this first game. You got to get used to the new atmosphere of playing playoff volleyball. I thought we came out real strong in games 1 and 2. I was really happy with our performance.” Northern Cambria advances to host No. 5 seed Purchase Line on Thursday at 7.

As expected, nerves got the best of a Glendale squad making their collective postseason debuts early on. The Lady Vikings later rebounded in the third set to provide more resistance. “I think they came with the kind of a ‘deer in headlight’ look,” Glendale coach Brenda Hewitt said. “But I told them since we started practicing for the postseason, everything is icing on the cake right now. We’ve exceeded expectations to this point. They loosened up and had fun that third set.”

Northern Cambria came out strong with runs of 4-0 and 6-0 to lead 12-4 on service runs from seniors Ashlee Parrish and Breanna

Lieb. Senior libero Paige Kirkpatrick served during a 7-0 run to expand the NC lead to 22-9. A Mallory Bernard kill gave the Colts a 25-10 victory in the first set.

Freshman Maggie Hogan used her lethal jump serve to key a 10-0 NC run with three straight aces. The Northern Cambria lead drew to 21-3, thanks to two aces from Parrish. A Lieb ace finished out the set, 25-5, as Glendale had no answer for the Colts’ strong serving.

“We were very flat footed, we weren’t on our toes and we weren’t moving our feet,” Hewitt described her team’s lack of serve receive. “They were almost in shock.”

After a long speech after the second set, Glendale took its first lead of the night. Seven ties and six lead changes ensued before Northern Cambria started to break away with a 4-0 spurt. Mini service runs from Bernard and Lieb helped the Colts take the final set, 25-17.

Five Northern Cambria players finished with at least four kills, led by Lieb’s nine. Parrish and Camryn Dumm provided 16 and nine assists, respectively. Parrish added 13 service points and Lieb ended up with six blocks.

Hannah Dudurich led Glendale with five service points.

Getting to play in the playoffs was a great experience for the Lady Vikings.

“This is a building year. We’re losing two seniors this year but good things are happening with this program,” Hewitt said. “We’re heading in the right direction. We wanted to have a good showing for our first playoff experience. Now they understand what playoffs are all about and I hope now they set their sights a little higher next year.”

Hewitt was especially grateful for the community support. A bus full of students made the trip to cheer on the Vikings.

“Our fans all season long have been great. The fans have been fantastic, our student section has been great and very supportive,” Hewitt said.

SERVICE POINTS

GLENDALE: Dudurich 5, Rydbom 2, Wolfe 2, Simmers 1, Hewitt 1.

NORTHERN CAMBRIA: Parrish 13, Hogan 11, Bre. Lieb 10, Kirkpatrick 8, Dumm 4, Bernard 4, S. Sheredy 2, Donatelli 1.

Records: Glendale (9-9); Northern Cambria (19-0).

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