By Michael Boytim

mboytim@altoonamirror.com

TYRONE — Defending District 6 Class 3A champion Hollidaysburg showed plenty of heart battling back from down two games to one and then back from a 7-3 deficit in the fifth and deciding game to take a lead, but it turned out to be second-seeded Bald Eagle Area’s night Wednesday in a 17-25, 25-22, 25-13, 15-25, 15-11 win over the Lady Tigers in the championship match at Tyrone Area Middle School.

“I love coaching this team,” Hollidaysburg coach Dean Grenfell said. “I love coaching the whole team, and I told them I loved coaching them this season. Your season isn’t defined by when you lose but who you played with. This squad was a lot of fun to coach all season long.”

With the Lady Eagles (18-2) up 7-3 in the fifth game, which is played to 15, Hollidaysburg was on the ropes until back-to-back kills by Emily Clapper got it going. Senior Lucy Stanek followed with an ace, Clapper had another kill and Stanek had another ace to put the Lady Tigers ahead, 8-7. The teams traded the next four points with Hollidaysburg’s coming on kills by Sierra McGinnis and Clapper, but Bald Eagle Area surged ahead with back-to-back kills by Leah Bryan.

“We knew this team was going to challenge us,” Grenfell said. “This Bald Eagle team was an incredible squad, and when we played them in the regular season, they didn’t have one of their middles. We knew it was going to be a different story. They are going to be good for years to come. (Bryan) put them on her back at the end, and we didn’t have an answer in that moment.”

Bryan continued to surge down the stretch, and Hollidaysburg managed just one more point on a Sahara McNeal kill before BEA closed it out by scoring the final three.

“(Bryan is) still just a sophomore, but she played absolutely out of her skin tonight,” Bald Eagle Area coach Zach Rote said. “She rises to the occasion in big games. She didn’t let this get to her. She didn’t get too high or too low, and once she got momentum, there wasn’t much stopping her.”

Myia Brooks, the middle player who did not play in the teams’ regular season meeting — a 3-0 Hollidaysburg sweep — had two service points to begin the final game.

Drew Kordish led Hollidaysburg with 11 service points, and Lexi McLanahan added 10. The Lady Tigers finished the season 18-3 with their only other two losses coming to PIAA power Philipsburg-Osceola.

“The moments where we played well, we played with fewer errors,” Grenfell said. “Our errors led to their momentum and led to them having more confidence to swing hard. When we took their confidence away, we were able to get them tipping at us. We were playing smart, but when they had the confidence, they did it right back to us.”

Hollidaysburg looked like it might cruise to victory after dominating the first game, 22-15, but Bald Eagle Area stretched a 20-19 lead to 24-20 before holding on to win the second, 25-22. The Lady Eagles carried that momentum over into a dominating 25-13 third-game win before Hollidaysburg began its rally in the fourth.

Hollidaysburg loses eight seniors including McLanahan, Kordish, McGinnis, Lucy Stanek and Elizabeth Wallace, who all started Wednesday’s championship match.

“They just had such a great run,” Grenfell said. “They don’t do it without the team around them, but it’s been pretty special to have those girls and have the team around them for their four years and watch them grow. Each one has grown and done so much for this squad. They have so much fun together and bring everyone along for the ride.”

SERVICE POINTS

BALD EAGLE AREA: Perry 8, Habovick 3, Taylor 11, Boone 9, Angellotti 5, Eppley 2, Brooks 2.

HOLLIDAYSBURG: L. Stanek 6, McLanahan 10, Clapper 5, McNeal 3, N. Stanek 2, Basenback 2, Kordish 11, McGinnis 1.

Records: Bald Eagle Area (18-2); Hollidaysburg (18-3).