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TYRONE -- State College has had a stranglehold on the District 6 Class 6A crown for quite some time.
Altoona entered Wednesday night's championship match as the second seed looking to unseat the Little Lady Lions.
However, despite a third set that was tied at 16, State High asserted control from there and cruised to a 3-0 sweep of the Lady Spikers, 25-15, 25-12, 25-17 at the Tyrone Area Middle School Gymnasium.
"We knew coming in that beating them (State College) was going to be a very tall task," Altoona coach John Saboe said. "We had talked about that. We had talked about just doing the things that we had been doing well recently. ... State College came out and they smacked a couple of good balls and put a little bit of reality to us. But the great thing is we recovered and that was one of the things that we talked about this week."
The Lady Lions also swept both matches of the regular season.
"We're into double digits now (as far as winning consecutive district titles go)," State College coach Audrey McDonough said. "... We came in and we had a focus and a plan. I thought they (State College) stuck to the plan."
The first set was tied once at 1-1, then with Altoona only trailing 3-2, State College began to seize the match as it slowly separated itself by recording six of the next seven points to grab a 9-3 edge as Lily Glenna came through with a kill.
The Lady Spikers pulled within five on four separate occasions (12-7, 14-9, 16-11, 17-12) before getting as close as four at 17-13 when State hit a return deep after the two teams volleyed four times.
From there, the Little Lady Lions reeled off six straight behind five service points from Nora Cawley to grab a 23-13 advantage.
The final point of the first set came off a serve from Joslin Adams where the ball fell in between two Altoona players on what would have been the third hit.
The Lady Spikers got the very early lead in the second set as Selena Lopez-Oakes began with a service point after SC's return sailed out.
A service error by State allowed Altoona to take a 2-1 edge which was its last of the second set.
The Spikers were as close as 6-4 when Looez-Oakes got a return hit to drop.
However, State College assumed dominance in the middle set as it limited Altoona to one point at a time while going on multiple runs that included several points at a time.
Adams ended the set when she delivered a kill on a service by Altoona's Marissa Rosas.
"It's the game of volleyball -- everybody makes mistakes," Saboe said. "The bigger question is how are you going to respond when you make that mistake. I think in game three, the girls did a nice job of stepping up and giving themselves some opportunity to score points and then giving themselves the opportunity to potentially pull a win out."
The third set proved to be a whirlwind of back-and-forth scoring at times as Altoona got out to a 5-1 lead when Brynn Daniel recorded three points in a row.
State High made it 6-4 before Altoona doubled it up again at 8-4 when Maleah Koch had a block at the net. The Little Lady Lions got three straight points from Cawley to knot the set at 8-8.
From that point, there would be five ties and four lead changes.
With SC leading, 16-15, Altoona tied the third set one last time as State's Payton Lackey had her serve go out to make it 16-16.
On Lopez-Oakes' serve, an Altoona player was called for being in the net on the return defense to put State up for good.
Allie Jeanmenne reeled off six straight service points to all but end it as the Little Lady Lions took a 23-16 advantage.
Jeanmenne's seventh serve went out the back to give Altoona its last point of the evening.
On the Daniel serve, SC's Lucy Potter found a hole on the back side of the Altoona return.
Brielle Freeman ended the match for the Lady Lions when she aced a serve that a diving Daniel wasn't able to get enough on.
Claire Betar finished with 14 digs, while Daniel tallied nine. Meanwhile, Lopez-Oakes ended with eight assists.
Saboe credits his four seniors (Lopez-Oakes, Koch, Ally Rosenberry and Kayden Weyandt) for being good leaders throughout the season.
"We had four seniors and we are especially thankful for them as they have given us so much this year," Saboe said. "In terms of leadership, in terms of mentorship for our kids -- we're so thankful for those four young ladies."
Altoona finishes its season with a 3-14 record.
"The nice thing is we do have a really nice group of young kids coming through," Saboe said.
SERVICE POINTS
ALTOONA: Daniel 4, Betar 3, Mitchell 3, Lopez-Oakes 2, Thompson 2.
STATE COLLEGE: N. Cawley 12, Adams 7, Lackey 6, Jeanmenne 6, Gilroy 5, S. Cawley 5, Freeman 3.
Records: Altoona (3-14); State College (15-1-1).