Mirror photo by Michael Boytim Altoona coach John Saboe talks to his team Thursday night at Bald Eagle Area High School.

By Michael Boytim

mboytim@altoonamirror.com

WINGATE — Altoona has just four seniors on its high school girls volleyball team, and the Lady Spikers have been learning on the go this season.

Unfortunately, part of that growth was a painful one Thursday night at Bald Eagle Area as State College swept Altoona, 25-15, 25-23, 25-20, in the District 6 Class 4A championship match.

“(We were missing) that experience, that do-or-die attitude of needing to take care of your business at this stage,” Altoona coach John Saboe said. “Credit to State College, they had that experience being in this big game before. We haven’t been in this game in a couple years, and I think it kind of showed to some degree as well as some of the youth we had on the court as well came through in the game.”

The Lady Little Lions jumped ahead 17-7 in the first set, and Alex Haskins had a block and back-to-back aces down the stretch to lift State College to a 25-15 win.

“A lot of these kids have been through this, last year especially,” State College coach Chad Weight said. “Our record doesn’t show it, but we were probably one of the better 6-8 teams in the state coming in. We have played big-time competition, and so I feel like that prepares us for matches like this. Winning never gets old. It feels good. The kids did a great job.”

Altoona led for most of the second set before Emma Lally had four straight service points for State College to put her team ahead, 22-17. The Lady Spikers fought back with a run started by a Megan Kelly kill and five straight service points by Sami Page, who finished with a team-high 10, to put Altoona up 23-22.

But Sarah Tate responded with a kill for State College, and Alexis Fisher had back-to-back aces to end the set, 25-23.

“We made a lot of good decisions tonight,” said Weight, who saw his team lose to Altoona in the regular season, 3-1, on Oct. 9. “In the regular season, I didn’t think we made as many good decisions. We played really hard tonight too.”

The third set went back and forth until three straight service points, including an ace, by Tate down the stretch that helped State College pull away in a 25-20 win to clinch the championship.

“Our kids busted their tails,” Saboe said. “They have done a fantastic job all season. Today obviously wasn’t their night. It was a tough night for them.”

The loss ended the careers of four Altoona seniors.

“They are four tremendous young ladies,” Saboe said. “All four of them have made contributions in different ways to our program. Sydney (Stroup) has been an outstanding hitter and great defensive player for us. Nora (Reed) took on a great leadership role for us and did a fantastic job embracing coming in and playing a little defense and being a good server for us. Aunye (Counsman) was really the backbone of our team as the libero. She embraced playing the game at a higher level and is a tremendous young lady. Julia (Kline) did a great job for us on the right side and came in and served well. She’s a good blocker, and she came through with some kills when we really needed them.”

In addition to her 10 service points, Page had 17 assists and 10 digs. Counsman had 26 digs, Kelly had four kills, three blocks and two digs, Ava Steinbugl had eight service points, seven kills, nine digs and two aces and Ellaina Saylor had eight kills.

Altoona finished the season 9-8.

“We looked at our team and knew there was some potential for some really good things,” Saboe said. “Our kids battled through the Mid-Penn schedule, did a fantastic job and from where we started to where we finished were two different places. It was great to see the growth the kids had all season.”

SERVICE POINTS

STATE COLLEGE: Fisher 13, Haskins 9, Lally 9, Tate 6, Campbell 4, D’Altrui 2.

ALTOONA: Page 10, Steinbugl 8, Treece 3, Albright 3, Counsman 2.

Records: State College (7-8); Altoona (9-8).

Officials: Bill Wolf, Clark Adelman, Doug Farabaugh, Joe Skura.