Bishop Canevin girls volleyball ready to defend WPIAL title

By: HSSN Staff
Thursday, August 23, 2018 | 10:36 PM

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The three area girls volleyball teams start the 2018 season at all points on the spectrum.

Bishop Canevin is defending a WPIAL title. Chartiers Valley missed the playoffs by a game. And Carlynton is trying to crack .500 in coach Amber Seibel’s second season.

A look at each team:

BISHOP CANEVIN

The Crusaders have won of three of the past five WPIAL Class A titles. But one thing they haven’t done in that stretch is repeat.

That could change this season as only one player from the regular rotation, Tamara Blue, graduated. Returning are seniors Gabby Matakovich (defense), Lexi Hall (outside hitter), Ally Correa (middle) and Kylie Airesman (outside hitter) and juniors Hanna DeLisio (libero), Maddie Maziarz (setter) and Alexa Malloy (opposite).

“Everybody who is coming back knows their role and knows what we’re looking to defend,” coach Kevin Walters said.

If Walters needs to go to his bench, he is confident in his depth. He said he has four or five players to whom he could turn if needed.

“All of them have improved from last year to this year,” he said. “They worked on different things in the offseason, and a lot of them played club somewhere.”

CARLYNTON

The improvement of the Cougars, who went 2-10 last season, might be tied directly to the comfort level of their coach. Seibel was a rookie in 2017 but feels more confident in what she and her assistants are doing.

“We sort of ironed out our ideas about how we want to run the season, what we want to convey to the girls,” Seibel said. “But beyond that, the girls are a lot more comfortable with us and much more aware of our expectations in practices and games.”

The Cougars’ are led by six seniors: libero Airys Gould, defensive specialists Kira Gossard and Jasmine Caldwell, opposite hitter Melina DeRose, outside hitter Kayla Glumac and middle Jenna Williams.

Junior setter Jaelyn Melko and sophomore outside hitter Emmaline Stevens also return, giving Carlynton a wealth of experience.

Seibel is entering the Cougars in more tournaments this year as opposed to scheduling nonsection dual matches. In that way, she hopes to fine-tune her lineup for section matches.

“There’s less weekday travel, which means we can practice a little more,” Seibel said. “You can see a lot more competition (at tournaments) and tweak things a lot quicker, run different combinations of people and plays … without it counting toward your overall record.”

CHARTIERS VALLEY

The Colts return a loaded lineup (nine letterwinners) and expect to make a push for the section title. The top two returning players are setter Ashlynn Gulakowski and outside hitter Mara Hartoyo, both seniors. At 5-foot-10, Gulakowski is a dominating physical presence at the net, and Hartoyo, coach Jason Ferri said, could be one of the best hitters in the WPIAL. Both are drawing college interest.

Middle hitters Julia O’Neill and Laney Friburger complement Hartoyo to give CV a strong attack.

What excites Ferri most about this team, however, is its depth.

“At almost every position, we are two and three deep, which is really nice,” he said. “We have a lot of good defensive players. I’d be really disappointed if we didn’t at least get to the playoffs.”

The Colts will have to do so in a section that features traditional powers Montour, West Allegheny and South Fayette. But Ferri said he believes the section will be wide open.

“I think it’s going to be really highly contested,” he said. “I don’t think any team is going to dominate.”

Charles Curti is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Charles at ccurti@tribweb.com or via Twitter @CCurti_Trib.

Tags: Bishop Canevin, Carlynton, Chartiers Valley