Junior guard steps into go-to role for Freeport girls basketball team

By: Michael Love
Wednesday, January 5, 2022 | 8:07 PM

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With two regular starters out of the lineup Monday for a Section 1-4A matchup against Burrell, Ava Soilis set out to lift up her youthful Freeport teammates.

The junior guard, a second-year starter for the Yellowjackets and currently the team’s leading scorer, came through with a career-best 26 points and five rebounds.

Despite Soilis’ best efforts at both ends of the court, Burrell was able rally and held off Freeport for a 56-51 victory.

“It was tough not having (junior guard) Melaina (DeZort) in there, and we’ve also been without (senior forward) Leah (Hartman) too,” Soilis said. “I just wanted to do my part. I felt I had a pretty good game, but I wanted to see us get the win.”

Soilis is one of the leading scorers in the Alle-Kiski Valley at 17.8 points a game through her team’s first five contests. Freeport is 2-3 overall with one of the losses a 53-52 overtime setback to Class 5A Fox Chapel at the season-opening Freeport Tip-Off Tournament.

She also has contributed 5.4 rebounds and 2.6 steals per game. She had six rebounds and five steals against the Foxes.

“I wanted to take that next step in the offseason for myself and my team, and I knew I needed to put in the hard work,” Soilis said. “I think working with Ron McNabb really helped raise my level of play.”

McNabb has been well known in A-K Valley basketball circles for more than 40 years, first as a player at Valley all the way up to his most recent coaching tenure at Knoch. He was the starting point guard on the Vikings’ 1979 PIAA state championship team before a strong college career at IUP.

“The thing with Ava, and what I’ve seen for so many years since she was young, is that she hates to lose and is ultra competitive,” Freeport coach Fred Soilis said. “When the game starts, she is full of energy and is flying around trying to make plays. She covers a lot of territory. A lot of her points (Monday) were just taking it to the basket with her quickness.

“At one point in the game, she made a move at the top of the key on her defender, shook her and got to the hole. Without Melaina in there to help shoulder a lot of scoring, Ava was able to pick it up.”

Soilis added a pair of 3-pointers against Burrell and was 8 of 9 from the free-throw line. She pointed to her foul shooting as an area of strong improvement from last year, and the stats bear that out.

She now is shooting 79% (27 of 34) from the free-throw line, up from 49% (26 for 53) a year ago.

Soilis said she appreciated the foundation set two years ago as she came to the varsity team in a reserve role with mentors such as then-seniors Sydney Shemanski, Maddie and Samantha Clark and Harley Holloway.

She averaged 2.2 points in 18 games for a Freeport team that went 17-8 overall, fell to Southmoreland in a two-point heartbreaker in the WPIAL quarterfinals and qualified for states.

In last year’s truncated campaign, Soilis averaged 9.8 points and 6.5 rebounds to complement DeZort’s team-leading 15.5 points a game as the Yellowjackets were 10-3 overall and 9-1 in section play.

Soilis and DeZort are providing a one-two scoring punch this season. DeZort is averaging 15 points through four games, and she is expected to be back in the lineup against Derry on Thursday after missing the Burrell matchup because of injury.

Sophomore Morgan Croney tallied 10 points and seven rebounds against Burrell and is averaging 5.4 points so far this season.

Freeport’s game with the Bucs was the first in two weeks since a 36-31 win over Deer Lakes in the section opener Dec. 20.

“We are a young team and we are still working to get better as a team,” Ava Soilis said. “We’re excited about (Thursday’s) game with Derry, and then we have Valley. Highlands and Knoch are really good teams too, and those games will be challenging but a lot of fun too.”

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

Tags: Freeport