North Catholic volleyball continues successful year with win over Mars
ADAMS TWP — Rather than look at the whole picture, North Catholic pulls out its magnifying glass.
Down in the middle of each set at Mars Tuesday night, the Trojanettes simplified their thinking and worked out of shallow pits, leaving with a 3-0 girls volleyball victory. The scores of the WPIAL Section 4-3A match were 25-21, 25-23, and 25-22.
“It’s really hard to shake people who are only playing for one (point),” North coach Amanda Fetter said. “There’s been times in this season that we’ve talked about not even looking at the scoreboard. Like, I don’t know sometimes that they could even tell you what the score was if it wasn’t lit up in front of them.
“They just keep trucking for one point.”
The Planets never led by more than three points in any game, but did take hold for three brief spurts, making their visitors earn a win.
In the first set, Mars led, 14-11, after consecutive aces by Rylee Woolridge, but a 7-0 surge gave the Trojanettes (12-1, 9-0) a lead they wouldn’t let go of.
During the next game, Mars was up, 11-8, before kills by senior Brooke Sciullo and an ace by classmate Aniela Balog evened it up. The Planets (7-7, 6-4) didn’t go up again after that until the third set — when it held only 1-0 and 12-11 edges.
“I think that when we connect — whether it’s in the middle or at the end of a match — we’re putting points together one at a time,” Mars coach Tami Carraway said. “When our serve receive kind of breaks down, then it becomes two or three (mistakes) and it takes us a while to regroup. We’re trying to make that time shorter and shorter.”
North routinely prepares to take advantage of such hiccups.
“We play a game almost every day in practice called ‘19-13’, where the other side has 19 and we have 13 — and they have to battle out of it,” Fetter said. “So, I don’t know that they’re really super affected by what the score is.”
The Trojanettes have reached the state title match each of the prior two seasons, winning it all in 2021 before falling just short last year. Junior outside hitter Ella Koziara, who had 11 kills against Mars, was a contributor for the latter group. Senior libero Alex Sepcic also played a role on that squad.
“I think one big thing about us that people would be surprised about is we don’t talk about what happened before,” Fetter said. “We let these kids come in and create their own mark on the program. Ella has been a big part of it — and will be a big part of it until she graduates. It was just kind of like, it’s her time to shine now.
“Just move the spotlight over a little bit.”
Middle hitters Claire Beaman and Megan Becker, outside hitter Bianca Udrea, and setter Sienna Cozza have also taken hold of opportunities.
“One game at a point, one point at a time, one practice at a time,” Fetter said. “Honestly, we won’t even talk about who we play Thursday until tomorrow at practice. We genuinely look at it like that.”
For those wondering, North will play Lincoln Park next.
The Planets entered Tuesday night neck and neck with Blackhawk and Knoch in the standings. They have New Castle Thursday — one of two sectional clashes left.
“I thought that they did not get rattled by mistakes,” Carraway said of her team’s effort. “They came out with that next point mentality, and they were willing to dig out of little holes that we created. That’s the sign of a team that’s ready to grow and continue to get better.”
Hailey Duker had 26 assists and four blocks for Mars. Ella Nicotra had 11 kills and three blocks, and Lily Javor seven kills.
