This season’s Central squad became the school’s first boys volleyball team in school history to win a District 6 championship, earn a berth in the PIAA Class 2A state tournament and win a set there.

Therefore, even though WPIAL runners-up South Fayette prevailed in four sets over the Scarlet Dragons, 25-18, 23-25, 25-21, 25-12 to win a first-round state playoff matchup Tuesday at the Central High School gymnasium, Lingenfelter had plenty of reason to reflect on this season with a sense of profound gratitude.

“I’m super proud of these guys,” said Lingenfelter, whose team finished a 9-5 season. “I thought we played hard, and I thought we stayed together as a team. Until this year, we had never been involved in a state playoff game, and we’re the first Central team to have won a set in a state playoff game.

“South Fayette is a great team, a really talented team, and I’m proud of the effort that our players put forth tonight,” Lingenfelter added.

Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski Central's Landon Rhodes meets South Fayette's Zayan Karim at the net.

South Fayette improved its season record to 19-1 and will advance to Saturday’s PIAA quarterfinal round against the winner of tonight’s first-round matchup between Brandywine Heights and Holy Redeemer.

“Central is a solid team,” South Fayette coach Scott Sundgren said. “They’re scrappy, and they exhibited good ball control. We were sloppy at times tonight, and we made too many unforced errors before we were able to settle down and get more into our style of play.

“It was a good match tonight,” Sundgren said.

South Fayette took the opening set, 25-18 before Central rebounded to capture the second set, 25-23 and pull even in the match. With the score in the second set tied, 22-22, South Fayette committed a couple of those unforced errors that Sundgren was referring to, hitting the ball into the net on one occasion and failing to keep the ball in bounds near the net as Central notched its decisive point.

Led by 6-foot-1 senior outside hitter Disher Goraya’s outstanding spiking ability that saw him produce 37 kills over the four sets, South Fayette carried play the rest of the way.

Two successive kills by Goraya enabled South Fayette to clinch the third set, 25-21, and in the fourth set, South Fayette reeled off nine straight points to balloon its 10-7 lead to 19-7 and put the match on ice.

Goraya was responsible for six kills during the surge as his length near the net proved to be difficult for Central to counter.

“He’s a WPIAL MVP,” Sundgren said of Goraya. “He’s a very well-rounded player who plays all 16 rotations for us. He’s a player who can take over a match.”

Quinn Leroux, a 6-foot-5 middle blocker, chipped in 11 kills for South Fayette, which got nine kills from 6-foot-2 outside hitter Arya Pamecha and 20 digs from senior setter Dave Kavy.

Central was led by senior captain Christian Heuston’s eight kills, five service points, and one service ace. Freshman middle hitter Colby Gojmerac registered seven blocks, one service ace, and three service points, and senior outside hitter Blake Reynolds had a team-leading six service points and one service ace.

Senior outside hitter Dylan Hoover had five service points, senior setter Landon Rhodes had four service points and a service ace, and sophomore middle hitter Lincoln Mauk registered three service points.

Central is graduating six of its eight starters from Tuesday night’s matchup — with seniors Heuston, Rhodes, Reynolds, Hoover, Mason Kocsis, and Bailey Wilt all moving on. Returnees from Tuesday’s starting lineup include Gojmerac and Lincoln Mauk, who will be a junior next year.

“We’re graduating six seniors, we have our two middle hitters (Mauk and Gojmerac) returning, and we’ve also got some newer guys coming in next year,” Lingenfelter said. “This season was a great season, and it’s been an honor to coach these guys.”