LANDISVILLE — The Wilson girls volleyball team fought hard Thursday night, but fell just short.
The fourth-seeded Bulldogs gave second-seeded Hempfield, the top-ranked team in the state by the Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Associationj, all it could handle before dropping the final two sets in a 3-2 loss in the District 3 Class 4A final.
The Black Knights (18-0) won by game scores of 25-18, 22-25, 26-28, 25-21 and 16-14 to earn their fifth straight championship and record 16th overall.
“They’re good,” Wilson coach Denny Werner said. “No.1 team in the state.”
The Bulldogs (21-3) came out slow in the first set but did a complete 180 in the second and third sets.
“In the first set we didn’t pass very well,” Werner said. “We kind of regrouped in the middle and got a little bit of momentum at the end.
“We just talked about how we’re going to have to be a little bit more uncomfortable, you know, doing things that we don’t normally do and taking more risks and we did do that. Then we kind of embraced that for the rest of the match.”
After losing the first set, the Bulldogs jumped to a 13-3 lead in the second on the way to the win.
In the third set, the Black Knights led 24-22 before Wilson went on a 6-2 run to close it out.
The fourth set was similar to the third as neither team could take control. The set was tied at 20-20 before Hempfield went on a 5-1 run to tie the match at two games each.
In the final set, Hempfield took an 8-3 lead, but Wilson fought back to cut it to 15-14 before Reece Calabretta had the match-clinching kill for the Black Knights.
“I said that I’m proud of them, and it’s got to hurt and that’s normal and natural,” Werner said he told his team afterward. “If you can do this to this team, who hasn’t seen anybody do that to them all year, you have a chance to win the state championship. So I know we’re hurting, I know we’re crying. I know we don’t want to turn to that yet, but that’s the message.”
For Wilson, Airyanna Kline had 20 kills and nine blocks; Nia Kendall had 16 kills, one dig and nine blocks; Kassidy Means had 12 kills, 10 digs, one block and one ace; and Cameryn Niedrowski had one kill, 18 digs, four blocks and 41 assists.
Wilson, which rallied after losing the first two sets to beat Dallastown in the semifinals, also lost to Hempfield 3-2 in the final last year and 3-1 in 2020.
The Bulldogs’ season will continue Tuesday in the first round of the PIAA Class 4A playoffs against the District 12 champion, site and time to be announced.
“Serve and pass,” Werner said on what the key is to winning. “If you can utilize your offensive weapons more frequently than the other team because you can pass better against their serve or you can serve them out of their system and stay in the system, you’re going to win.”
Source: Berkshire mont