Volleyball openers, girls soccer quarters and PIAA team golf on tap Wednesday

By: Don Rebel
Tuesday, October 22, 2019 | 10:43 PM

In this day and age where players, coaches and fans love playing the disrespect card in every sport, it has become comical the lengths some go to in an effort to explain how they were snubbed.

Perhaps one district girls volleyball team has a legitimate gripe though.

Wednesday opens up postseason play in Class AAAA and AAA of girls volleyball with 12 first-round matches.

One of them in AAAA has Hempfield hosting Oakland Catholic.

The Spartans won the Section 3 crown, yet were seeded No. 7 by the district steering committee.

Not only are they behind the top two teams in both Section 1 and Section 2, they are also seeded behind the third-place teams of those sections.

The winner of the Oakland Catholic-Hempfield match moves on the the quarterfinals next week to face No. 2 Pine-Richland. The Rams are one of four AAAA teams to receive a first-round bye.

Boys soccer quarters (mis)matches?

The WPIAL boys soccer playoffs move into the quarterfinals with all 16 matches scheduled for Wednesday.

There are many intriguing matches that will set the stage for the final four on Saturday, but there are two contests in Class AA that are interesting in how the four teams did in their playoff openers.

We’ll find out if it helps to cruise to victory in the first round or be battle tested.

At North Allegheny, Freedom will face South Park at 6 p.m.

The Bulldogs crushed Southmoreland in their opener 7-0. The Eagles were taken to the limit and beyond, edging Central Valley 1-0 by outscoring the Warriors 4-3 in penalty kicks after two scoreless overtimes.

At Moon, Freeport takes on Quaker Valley at 8 p.m.

The Yellow Jackets were tied with Keystone Oaks 2-2 after regulation and two overtimes before outscoring the Golden Eagles in penalty kicks 3-2 to advance to Round 2. There were no such dramatics needed in the Quakers’ opening-round match, as they pounded Beth-Center 10-0.

State team golf

With the 2019 PIAA individual golf championships now in the books, state gold will be up for grabs in the team golf championships Wednesday at the soggy Heritage Hills Golf Resort in York.

This is an event in which the WPIAL has had great success.

Last year, three district teams came home with gold with North Allegheny girls in AAA, Greensburg Central Catholic girls in AA and Central Catholic boys in AAA all finishing first.

That marked the third straight year the WPIAL had three team golf state champions.

In fact, a WPIAL team has won at least one state title every year since 2010 when there was only one championship each for boys and girls.

This year, only GCC girls are back to defend their crown. The other three district teams are Upper St. Clair girls in AAA, Sewickley Academy boys in AA and Fox Chapel boys in AAA.

Tags: Fox Chapel, Freedom, Freeport, Greensburg C.C., Hempfield, Oakland Catholic, Quaker Valley, Sewickley Academy, South Park, Upper St. Clair