North Allegheny notebook: Pitt’s Sarah Schupansky earns All-ACC first-team honors

By: Tribune-Review
Sunday, November 5, 2023 | 11:01 AM

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Sarah Schupansky made history last week, becoming the first member of the Pitt women’s soccer team to earn first-team All-ACC honors.

Schupansky, a 2021 North Allegheny graduate, has a team-high 10 goals, 10 assists and 30 points this season. The forward was the ACC Offensive Player of the Week earlier this fall.

She also helped the Panthers upset Duke for the first time to secure a spot in the ACC semifinals.

Schupansky was among five Panthers to earn All-ACC recognition.

At North Allegheny, she was a United Soccer Coaches All-American and won the Moe Rosensteel Award in 2020 and helped the Tigers win two WPIAL championships.

Volleyball returns to championship

Pine-Richland gave North Allegheny a stern test in the second set of the WPIAL Class 4A girls volleyball semifinals Nov. 1, and the Tigers responded like six-time defending state champions.

Faced with the prospects of a squared-up match, Jamie Frisco had a pair of kills and Kyra Schmidt served a crucial ace to help the Tigers fend off the Rams, 26-24.

It was a critical sequence in what turned out to be a 3-0 sweep for the top-seeded Tigers over the fourth-seeded Rams at Fox Chapel.

With the win, the Tigers (15-1) clinched a spot in the WPIAL Class 4A championship match for a seventh consecutive season. They faced No. 3 Canon-McMillan on Nov. 4.

“I’m just really happy for our group because we graduated seven seniors that all played for us last year,” North Allegheny coach Russ Hoberg said. “We have another amazing senior class, but they haven’t had as many opportunities on the court until this year. For them to go out and prove they have what it takes as well is really cool.”

Frisco had 10 kills, four of which came in the critical second set.

The Tigers closed out the match with a 25-19 win in the third set.

Jordan Frisco, Jamie’s twin sister, clinched match point with an ace.

The Tigers had seven players earn all-section honors on Nov. 2, including Jamie Frisco and senior libero Avery Butcher on the first team. Junior setter Mack Jones, freshman setter Molly Robertson and senior hitter Kyra Schmidt were picked to the second team. Defensive specialist Caileigh Duffy and senior hitter Marin Dunaway were honorable mentions.

Hoburg was named the Section 1 coach of the year.

Boys soccer advance to title game

Mykola Denysenko scored the go-ahead goal in the 35th minute and Graham Kunz added a needed insurance goal in the second half to lead No. 2 North Allegheny to a 3-2 victory over No. 3 Butler (14-3-3) in the WPIAL Class 4A boys soccer semifinals Oct. 31.

Nathan Katari also scored for North Allegheny, and Zach Nash, who has a team-high 15 goals, added an assist.

The Tigers (16-1-3) took on eighth-seeded Norwin in the finals Nov. 4 at Highmark Stadium.

Senior keeper Dante Accamando was picked to the all-state team on Oct. 31. He also was selected to the All-WPIAL team last week, along with Nash and Arnav Patel.

NA’s second-year coach Manny Montero was named the Western Pennsylvania Soccer Coaches Association 4A co-coach of the year.

Also last week, Montero was named the Section 1 coach of the year. Nash, Patel and Accamando were named first-team all-section, while Luke Brady and Katari earned second-team all-section recognition. Leonardo Yu and Caleb Rumberger were honorable mention.

Girls soccer reaches WPIAL finals

Top-seeded North Allegheny beat No. 5 Canon-McMillan, 2-1 in overtime in the WPIAL Class 4A girls soccer semifinals Oct. 30 to advance to the WPIAL championship game for the fourth time in the last five seasons.

The Tigers were slated to face Fox Chapel on Nov. 2.

Abigail Stager, a Kentucky commit, was the hero for the Tigers in the semifinals, scoring her 31st goal of the season 22 seconds into overtime.

The Tigers have four players who earned All-WPIAL honors last week — senior forward Jadyn Coy, senior defender Libby Earley, junior defender Madison Miller and Stager, who was honored for the second time.

Stager, Earley and Miller were first-team all-section picks, and Coy, Kieran Shannon, Ally Ruiz, Emma Schupansky, Eliana Vitale and Natalie Rak were second-team honorees.

Field hockey team falls in semifinals

Jessica Albertson had a pair of goals and Khushi Saini also scored for top-seeded Pine-Richland (18-0) in a 3-0 Class 3A semifinal win over No. 4 North Allegheny on Oct. 28.

North Allegheny finished the season 8-9-2 overall.

Water polo finishes 7th at states

North Allegheny’s girls water polo team beat Muhlenberg, 9-7, to lock up seventh place at the state tournament Oct. 28.

Carissa Jones had four goals, Bella Spino scored twice, and Tori Tieppo, Ava Sharar and Katyusha Peregoncev added scores. Izzie Trunzo made 12 saves in goal and was named first-team all-state and earned the state’s Goalie of the Year award.

The Tigers also lost to eventual state champion North Penn, 12-2, and fell to Wissahickon, 11-10, in the earlier rounds.

They finished the season 15-9 overall.

NA rowing competes in Columbus

North Allegheny rowers took part in the Blake Haxton and Speakmon Memorial regattas Oct. 28-29, in Columbus, Ohio.

Madison Lambert and Madelyn Rodgers won their second gold medal of the season in the women’s 2x.

In the women’s Quad 4x event, Alexandra Witzel, Sawyer Wright, Katherine Zema and Lorelei Schreiber placed first and the team of Alexandra Edfors, Ava Moore, Natalie Helfrick and Emily DiDonato was second.

Also, the women’s Open 4+ of Alana Boronski, Athena Thomas-Huber, Vanessa Edfors and Boden Sumerlin with coxswain Evelyn Disque took third to earn their first medal of the season.

The men’s side was led by the novice boys coxed 4 of Phoenix Core, Maximus Disque, Neil Pore and AJ Walton with coxwain Mandy Adducci, which took fourth. The men’s varsity Quad was fifth with Miles Rees, Josh Dubovecky, Anthony Bertucci and Layton Wright.

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