By Nate Ritchey

nritchey@altoonamirror.com

ALEXANDRIA — Bishop Carroll wasted no time dispatching Juniata Valley in the opening set.

The Lady Hornets, who hadn’t played in about 10 days, settled in and kept it close in the second before the Lady Huskies took control a little over midway through the third.

Fifth-seeded Carroll advanced to the semifinals with a sweep (25-8, 25-20, 25-13) of the fourth seed, Monday night in District 6 Class 1A quarterfinal action at Juniata Valley.

“They (Bishop Carroll) have been practicing so hard — they were just so ready to play,” Bishop Carroll coach Jackie Koscho said. “They just love to play, they love the game and the first set showed it.”

BC (13-5) will play at top seed West Branch on either Wednesday or Thursday. Meanwhile, JV had its campaign end with a 15-5 mark.

Valley never led in the opening set, but had it tied at 2-2 before Olivia Gregg reeled off four straight service points to push the BC lead to 7-2.

The Hornets had trouble finding their cohesion as many returns in the opener found their way into the net or landed out of bounds.

With the score at 7-3, Bishop Carroll recorded 20 of the next 24 points to take a commanding 23-7 edge before Juniata Valley got its eighth point on a BC kill attempt that landed out.

The Lady Huskies got the next point on a Melinda Harker putaway before claiming the first set, when communication troubles by JV resulted when two players went for the third hit but neither committed enough to hit it over.

“We haven’t seen an opponent in probably 10 days,” Juniata Valley coach Mary Reed said. “… We’ve been practicing a lot and beating each other up in the gym, and they’ve been doing a very decent job of it. But, of course, unless you play another opponent, you don’t know how things are actually going to go.”

Once again, the Lady Hornets never led in the second set but they stepped up their all around game to keep it close.

BC got the first four points on serves by Emily Olienyk, who led the way with 16 service points.

JV came back within one on four different occasions (6-5, 7-6, 8-7 and 9-8) before the Huskies got a 6-3 spurt to claim a 15-11 edge on a set by Greta Krumenacker and a kill from Harker.

“I think the first set was just getting used to their (Bishop Carroll) hitters and seeing what was going on and how we needed to adjust things a little bit,” Reed said. “.. They (Juniata Valley) did adjust the second game, and I was pretty proud of them that they didn’t let them take it from them because I thought we played pretty strong.”

JV got within 15-12 on a service error by Gregg, but Bishop Carroll quickly responded to push the lead to seven at 20-13 as Harker tallied four points in a row.

Valley settled down and used back-to-back kills from Ava Sager to pull as close as 23-19, but that was it.

A set by Krumenacker and a kill by Gregg was followed by a Krumenacker service error before the duo ended the second set by combining for the final assist and putaway in the 25-20 final.

Juniata Valley’s Selena Sunderland began the third set with a service point to give the home team its first lead of the evening.

The two teams went back-and-forth through the first 16 points with the set tied at 8-8 when Harker’s kill attempt landed into the net.

The Lady Hornets answered that miscue by winning seven of the next eight points to take a 15-9 advantage.

After a service error went into the net to make it 15-10, Bishop Carroll regrouped again and collected six of the next seven to take a 10-point lead (21-11).

Krumenacker set up Gregg to give BC set and match point for the win.

Following a Gregg serve, Juniata Valley returned the ball back over to Bishop Carroll which got an Allie Dziabo bump to Krumenacker who set it to Gregg for the kill to end the match with a 25-13 victory.

Krumenacker, who dished out 34 assists, had several options all night to set for as Gregg led the way with 19 kills, while Harker, Dziabo, Emily Olienyk and Sophie Becquet had several kills apiece to aid the dangerous attack of the Huskies all night.

Sam Buynack and Becquet registered 11 and nine digs each for BC.

Braelyn Hall fronted Valley with 28 digs and four points, Sunderland came up with 11 assists, while Paige Robinson had six blocks and Madyson Burdge finished with five kills.

SERVICE POINTS

BISHOP CARROLL: Olienyk 16, Harker 9, Gregg 7, Krumenacker 6, Dziabo 5, Becquet 2.

JUNIATA VALLEY: Hall 4, Borst 3, Sunderland 2, Entreken 2, Watson 2.

Records: Bishop Carroll (13-5); Juniata Valley (15-5).