No. 2 North Catholic girls volleyball too much for Derry in quarterfinals

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, October 30, 2018 | 8:15 PM

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Derry girls volleyball coach Brock Smith was proud of the fight his team showed against North Catholic, which he called one of the best teams his group has faced all season. But No. 2 North Catholic used long runs to win the first two sets comfortably and earned a 3-0 sweep of No. 7 Derry in the WPIAL Class AA quarterfinals Tuesday at North Allegheny.

North Catholic advanced to the semifinals Thursday and secured a spot in the PIAA playoffs. They won the match 25-14, 25-9, 25-11.

“They’re a very good offensive team,” Smith said. “They serve the ball well. They do a good job of receiving serves, and their setter is very good at passing the ball to the outsides, who are really good hitters.”

The first set went back and forth and was tied 11-11, but North Catholic used a 10-0 run to pull ahead 21-11. Senior outside hitter Alana Felix had six kills in the set, and her younger sister, Dominique Felix, had three. During the 10-0 run, Derry had four hitting errors and surrendered a pair of aces to Olivia Kaminski.

Derry was in a similar hole in the second set after an 11-0 run made the score 18-5. They made five unforced errors in that run, and Dominique Felix recorded four kills.

“Defensively, I don’t think we played one of our better matches,” Smith said. “We had moments where we flowed pretty well. We touched a lot of balls at the net and in the backcourt, but we couldn’t turn them into something that we could take advantage of.

“In the second set, when we knew we needed to do more, we started to make unforced errors. We were trying to hit deep shots that went into the net. We also had a couple blown serves at pivotal times that ended up turning into two or three points in a row for them.”

Derry held a 17-15 lead in the third, but North Catholic used a 4-0 run to take the lead for good. North Catholic never trailed by more than three points in the match. Dominique Felix had 11 kills, and Alana Felix finished with 10. Both of them are Sacred Heart recruits.

“(Dominique and Alana) both are very talented,” North Catholic coach Amanda Fetter said. “They’re great kids that are great to coach. Their volleyball IQ is just off the charts. They both see things that other people don’t, and they are able to capitalize off of it.”

Kamryn Kelly led Derry with eight kills. Derry graduates seven seniors, who Smith said will be difficult to replace.

“I have a picture on my desk in my office of the team from 2003, which was one of the greatest groups of girls I’ve ever had, and I put this group right in the ballpark with that one,” Smith said. “These seven seniors, from the time they were in seventh grade until now, have improved as human beings and volleyball players.

“The amount of time and effort they put into it … you saw it on the court. They are not the best athletes, but they can play with a lot of teams, because they know how to play the game of volleyball.”

Jerin Steele is a freelance writer.

Tags: Derry Area