The Lady Red Devils walked into Derry Saturday morning and saw the competition we were up against, and had that "WOW" look on their faces. The first match against AAAA Norwin we were a little shell-shocked and fell pretty easily to them. However, we bounced right back and took 2 game from Indiana to get back in the winning column. Round 2 of pool play we were seeded with all of the #2 seeds from round one. We went 3-1 in Round 2, suffering our only loss to Latrobe in a tough, intense match that was 19-19 at one point. We finished 2nd in Round 2 of pool play, and that put us in the #7 spot for playoffs. The first round of playoffs we matched up against Indiana again, in which we routed them rather quickly. We were now up against #3, the host, Derry. After a 7-1 start, Derry called a timeout and made a comeback to 12-9, but we did not let off the throttle. Stellar defense from Abbie Young and Cass Bezek frustrated the Derry hitters, forcing them to tip rather than hit. This freed up our offense and Jenna Bauer, Ashley Grimes, and Emily Muffie dominated the front row, leading us to the victory. Thomas Jefferson came into the semifinals as the #2 seed and only 1 loss. However, our girls were determined, and I could tell they really had come together as a team as the day went on and had that look of determination and no fear in their eyes. Their desire to win excelled as we knocked off TJ rather easily as they could not keep up with our fast offense. The Championship match was against Norwin. They knocked off Latrobe in the semifinals to advance against us in the finals. Our girls wanted revenge from the morning, and they had felt the sting of that loss early on. We had won 5 in a row at this point, and they had no doubts they wanted to make it 6 and finish off the day. Our strong defense and quick offense frustrated Norwin, as both teams battled back and forth point for point. The gym was so loud it gave you that playoff atmosphere. In the end, we put together the perfect day and finished off Norwin to win the Championship. This is Central Cambria's first volleyball tournament win in school history!

 

Our team leadership from Senior Captain Abbie Young and Junior Jenna Bauer was strong all day long. They kept the team's attitude positive the entire day and never let them get down on themselves when facing adversity. The team never backed down to the dominate teams of Derry, TJ, and Norwin. I told the girls we need to attack these teams and serve tough to get them out of system, and if we did that, we would be right there at the end with a chance to win. That's exactly what the girls did, took control of the game into their own hands, and surprised the entire tournament when they came out victors!