WEXFORD — Things were about to go from bad to much worse for North Catholic’s volleyball team.

The defending WPIAL champion had already dropped the first set of Wednesday’s Class 3A semifinal to Oakland Catholic and trailed the Eagles 24-23 in the second when head coach Amanda Fetter called a timeout.

“We were tense and making errors because of it,” she said. “I reminded the players that we play our best when we’re having fun.”

The Trojanettes spent the rest of the match having a blast.

An service error by the Eagles tied the game and due in large part to a kill from Ella Koziara, North won three of the next four points to pull even in games.

North Catholic’s Camdynn Gonzalez (2) receives support from teammate Sienna Cozza as they battle Oakland Catholic’s Grace Kosylo at the net during Wednesday’s WPIAL Class 3A girls volleyball semifinal at North Allegheny High School. The Trojanettes won 3-1. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle

The Trojanettes never trailed again in claiming a 3-1 victory by scores of 21-25, 27-25, 25-13 and 25-21 at North Allegheny High School.

The one-loss and No. 2-seeded Trojanettes will face the winner of Wednesday’s other semifinal between top-seeded Hampton and Thomas Jefferson, for the district championship at 3 p.m. Saturday at Peters Township High School.

“We realized that we needed to work for it,” said North senior outside hitter Brooke Sciullo, who tallied five of her 15 kills in the third set, dominated by the Trojanettes. “We had a lot more energy later in the match and we worked well together.”

Ella Koziara, also on the outside, tallied 19 kills for North.

“We were putting pressure on them early on and they were crumbling,” said Oakland Catholic coach Jenna Potts. “But we lost steam and they reversed things on us.

“We knew they had two great players on the outside, but they were still able to hurt us tonight.”

The fourth set proved much closer than the third. Oakland Catholic received kills from Josie Fontana, Katie Diegelman and Riley Samuel and a clutch block from Grace Kosylo and trailed just 18-17 before North put the finishing touches on their victory.

“Oakland has a very deep team,” said Fetter. “If we were going down tonight, we were going down swinging.

Sophomore Camdynn Gonzalez had five kills on the night, two of them coming in the pivotal second set.

“It’s not like basketball where you can score three points with one shot. It’s one point at a time and that’s the way we needed to play.”

North Catholic has won three straight district crowns, claiming the Class 2A title in 2020 and 2021 and winning in 3A a year ago.