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By Matt Michelone
For the Mirror
TYRONE - Every time it seemed like the Altoona boys' volleyball team was starting to get momentum and take control, State College seemed ready to take it away.
Outside of a late stretch in set two and much of set three, the Mountain Lions couldn't get control of the District 6 Class 3A championship matchup against the Little Lions Tuesday night.
Although the overall result was closer this time around, the Little Lions still managed to eliminate Altoona 3-1 (25-18, 25-14, 23-25, 25-17) -- almost one year to the day of when these two teams met in last year's tilt.
"I thought we struggled with consistency," Altoona coach John Saboe said. "We would get moving, we'd get going, and they'd have an answer for what we were doing.
"Credit to them, they played a solid consistent game. That's kind of where we would struggle at times. We couldn't keep our passing exactly where we needed it to make our middles a consistent threat."
The Little Lions got off to a fast start with a 9-2 run in the first set, capped off by a Kadin Karacky finish for one of his 18 kills. That was later extended into a 13-4 run before Altoona started to make some noise.
Landen Fisher got a deflection to help cut the deficit down to five at 13-8. He finished with 11 kills and 10 blocks --six solo. Caleb Fries racked up 10 finishes and Sam Kessinger contributed 36 assists.
Moving forward Tyler Kowalski and Caleb Fries teamed up to get the point as the deficit was cut down to 16-15 before a Little Lion timeout.
"The middle part, they really got after us," State College coach Larry Campbell said. "In the third set, we have five service errors, passed a .159, we hit a negative number. It got ugly in set three, and good for them. We had beaten them eight straight sets."
The Little Lions wasted no time getting back to work after that as they went on a 10-2 run to wrap up the first set.
Both sides had a back-and-forth second set initially as the Little Lions struggled with service and hitting errors. That was before finding their grove late in the frame. Sam Li got a deflection and followed that up with an ace to set up a 12-2 run as the Little Lions (11-3) grabbed set two.
"We're still a young team," Saboe said. "I think we had two seniors out there, and you can see that there is still a little bit of that OK, there's still that next step we got to take to put our game at the next level.
"You got to hold them accountable, but at the same time you're going, 'man, these kids are three months under their belt playing … how hard can you be on them because they're doing a great job?'"
The Mountain Lions (8-7) showed some signs of life in the third set as Fisher came up with a kill, later followed by an ace from Garrett Baumgartner. They did have to fight of a State College rally before taking the third frame.
Tuesday night's defeat marked the end of the line for five Altoona seniors who helped the program secure a .500 record in the Mid-Penn in their final campaign.
"They're five great kids who have busted their tails," Saboe said. "They've taken advantage of opportunities when they've come along, they've helped this program to take another step and continue to grow."
State College gets Erie McDowell in a sub-regional matchup ahead of the PIAA playoffs at a site and time to be announced.
SERVICE POINTS
ALTOONA: Long 1, Kessinger 4, Baumgartner 7, Hartman 1, Yohn 5, N. Fries 1.
Records: Altoona (8-7), State College (11-3).