The team may have been short in sets one and two, but along with a longer one to open set three, State College got the one it needed each time out.

The Little Lions remained a thorn in the Altoona Mountain Lions’ side as they won the title in straight sets, 25-16, 25-18, 25-9 for their seventh straight championship.

“It was frustration; you could see that (in set three),” Altoona coach John Saboe said. “The kids stuck to our game plan in game one and two. I thought they did a job with it, we produced some offense. We just had one run that was a back breaker for us. If you look at game one and game two, we’d give a run of four or five points, and we’d lose by four or points.”

Altoona overcame some early service and attack errors in set one to cut the deficit to two as Parker Huey-Kish came up with the kill to make it 12-10 State High. Huey-Kish finished with eight kills and eight digs.

Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski / Altoona's Parker Huey-Kish spikes towards State College's Micah James (center) and Derrick Campbell.

The Little Lion pulled away with a 7-2 run thanks to finishes from Kyle Coleman, Micah James and Daeshon Hardison – who added block in the process – to make it 19-13. James stuffed home the final point of the opening frame for the early advantage.

“We’ve done a really good job this week at practice and playing at such a high level which is going to make a difference,” State College coach Larry Campbell said. “A lot of errors from both sides, that slows the game down. Our middles are such a huge advantage against them.”

Coleman finished the night with eight kills and James added nine.

State High added on as James added two more kills to help build an early set two lead at 6-1.

Altoona climbed back into the set as Noah Diventura and Maxwell Coon’s kills cut the deficit down to 11-9. Coon finished with 14 assists while Caleb Terza added 10 digs.

“We tried to work the court a little bit deep, we tried work the court a little bit short,” Saboe said. “Part of our game plan was not doing the same thing all of the time, trying to work the ball around. Early we got some balls with some tips deep where we beat them. We had some good swings where beat them at the ends lines in the court. Their front row block is big, it’s physical.”

But the beat went on for the Little Lions as Macon Workman registered back-to-back aces and Hardison stuffed home the point to extend the lead back to six before taking the set.

Derrick Campbell registered nine digs and 24 assists for State high while Ty Miller had 14 digs and Max Henning contributed 10.

“We talked about taking care of our individual growth,” Saboe said. “Making sure that we’re hitting the weight room, making sure that we’re getting as many contacts away from coaches as you possibly can and grow individually in the game so that when we come back in the gym, we can build the team and the team will be a better team because the individual pieces are better pieces.”

The Little Lions wasted no time putting the third set away as they jumped out to a 23-6 advantage and never looked back.

Altoona will graduate three seniors who Saboe appreciates their efforts as they helped guide a young team.

“They’re three awesome kids,” Saboe said. “Three kids that as the season has gone, has gotten better, and better, and better. We’re proud of the effort that they’ve made, what they’ve given us in leadership, what they’ve given us in modeling what good team leaders are.I’m proud of the three of them and I’m excited to see what kind of amazing things they’re going to do in life.”

State College will host McDowell on Wednesday night at 6 p.m. in the District 6-10 Class 3A Boys’ Volleyball Subregional. The winner will host the WPIAL’s No. 3 team on June 2.

SERVICE POINTS

ALTOONA: Coldwell 3, Greenleaf 1, Coon 2, Terza 1, Keagy 1

Records: Altoona (5-10), State College (9-4).