North Allegheny beats North Catholic in epic ‘brawl’ for WPIAL Class 4A volleyball title
McMURRAY — Sienna Cozza put it succinctly after the match: whoever won the second set was going to win the game.
She was not wrong.
No. 1 North Allegheny won a thrilling second set 33-31 and went on to claim the WPIAL Class 4A Girls Volleyball Championship 3-1 over third-seed North Catholic on Saturday at Peters Township High School’s AHN Arena.
“It felt huge, it felt massive,” Trojanettes head coach Amanda Fetter said of the second set, which allowed NA to tie things up 1-1. “It felt like when that ball landed in that set, it just felt like the adrenaline was just full-blown with that (winning) team.”
“There were a lot of points in that game where we were at our peak, I think for both teams, honestly,” Cozza, North Catholic’s senior setter, said. “It was like a brawl, we were just fighting it out — it was really fun to play in.”
But not fun, at least for Cozza and her teammates, to settle for WPIAL silver. The Tigers won the title, their fourth in five years, by set scores of 23-25, 33-31, 25-17 and 25-23. The Trojanettes, in their first year in 4A and trying to win their fifth WPIAL title gold in seven years, will play a regional champion Tuesday in the PIAA tournament at a site and time to be determined.
The second set featured some of the best volleyball in the WPIAL this season. The two teams put together a sequence of rallies during extra points that featured almost no mistakes, just haymakers.
Ella Koziara had two emphatic kills to make it 25-24, then 27-26, for North Catholic. But Molly Robertson answered both of them with tying points. Cozza ended a furious, 38-second rally with a tip-over for a kill to fight off one of several NA set points. The Trojanettes then went up 31-30 on an Audra Lazzarra kill.
But consecutive kills by Alicia Mokube, the latter assisted by a rare North Catholic defensive breakdown during the 15-minute stretch, and Kaitlyn Maziarz’s ace finished off a 33-31 epic for the Tigers.
“When a set’s that deep, that’s a tough one to lose and a big one to win,” NA head coach Russ Hoburg said.
NA immediately broke out to a 7-2 lead to start the third set, with North Catholic seemingly shaking off an emotional hangover early on. But despite clawing back to within 15-12, NC could not pull off the win.
The two section rivals, who split their season series in five-set matches, traded leads in the fourth set before the Tigers held on by a hair to claim gold.
Senior Koziara led North Catholic with 22 kills and 14 digs for a double-double. Cozza, heading to North Carolina next year, dished out 35 assists and dug 25 balls. Lazzarra chipped in 14 kills, and Josie Lorish had a match-high six aces.
But North Allegheny was just a bit better.
Robertson dominated with 22 kills of her own on a .217 attack percentage and had two aces, 10 digs and three blocks.
“She’s a sophomore who’s a setter and she’s playing out of position and she’s probably one of the best outsides in the state,” Hoburg said.
“I thought we did pretty good trying to shut her down, but she’s amazing, you’re not gonna shut her down every time, so she’s gonna get her kills,” Cozza said.
Her attack percentage was only outdone by an even more impressive .462 from Mokube, who finished with 14 kills and four block. Keeley McMahon-Regan had 25 assists.
North Allegheny made a daring rotation switch after dropping the first set, swapping junior Reagan Riordan from libero to outside hitter, where she had played earlier in the season, and bringing senior Macey Casten back to libero to steady the defense.
The move worked, as the Tigers won the next three sets.
“Macie brings a ton of stability as a senior leader, so it allowed, I think, Reagan to go back to a roll she was playing early in the season,” Hoburg said.
