Freeport rallies past North Catholic for WPIAL Class AA volleyball title

By: George Guido
Saturday, November 2, 2019 | 6:58 PM

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For the second time in 48 hours, the Freeport girls volleyball team rallied from two sets down.

On Saturday afternoon, the comeback resulted in a 3-2 victory over top-seeded North Catholic in the WPIAL Class AA final at Fox Chapel.

It’s the fifth WPIAL title — all in this decade — for the Yellowjackets (16-0).

Second-seeded Freeport also fell behind 2-0 on Thursday night in the semifinals against Avonworth.

“When that happened the other night with Avonworth, I kind of called out my seniors and the reached out a little bit,” Yellowjackets coach Tom Phillips said. “It was a little bit mellower today. Not that we weren’t worried about things, but we were playing pretty well at that time. Everybody believed that we could do this.”

A kill by senior Isabella Russo gave Freeport a 15-13 win in the final set.

The Yellowjackets will open the PIAA tournament Tuesday against District 9 champion Brookville. The match is expected to be played in WPIAL territory.

North Catholic (15-1) will face the District 10 champion Corry on Tuesday at a site and time to be determined.

After dropping the first two sets, 25-20 and 25-21, Freeport began its comeback by jumping to a 9-1 lead in the third set. North Catholic, the defending WPIAL champion, rallied to within 17-15 before Freeport pulled away to win 25-18 despite three service errors during the crucial set.

“I don’t know how we keep doing that,” Russo said. “Once we were down, we knew we had to play harder. We kept pushing and pushing. We never give up.”

“We came out in the third set, and we were losing, 9-1, and they got the momentum,” said Dominique Felix, North Catholic’s all-state candidate. “We couldn’t figure out our lineup and all that.”

Freeport rallied from an early 6-2 deficit in what turned out to be a see-saw fourth set. A kill by Tori Radvan tied the match at two wins each.

In the final set, Freeport took a 9-5 advantage after a net violation by North Catholic, followed by a double hit.

With the Yellowjackets ahead 14-13, Phillips called timeout.

Said Phillips: “I told them it was no different than yesterday at practice. It’s about pass, set, hit, pass, set, hit and the game’s over, and we move along. It was about staying within our system and believing that we can do it.”

That was followed by Russo’s hit to clinch the victory.

“It’s all amazing,” Russo said. “This is what we’ve worked for all year. To finish this off in my senior year, I’m so happy about that.”

“It was fun to play them. They’re great competition,” Felix said. “We’re excited to get back in the gym and work on what we have to do to get past this.”

Felix will be joining her sister at Division I Sacred Heart next year.

Lauren Lampus had 18 kills for Freeport, and Russo had 17. Madeline Clark had 26 digs and Erica Lampus 17.

The team was escorted by the state police up Route 28 North to the Freeport borderline, where the Freeport fire trucks then escorted the five-time champs through town.

Tags: Freeport, North Catholic