By Kenny Varner

WINGATE – It was a night of celebration for the State College volleyball team as they were able to take Central Mountain down in a hard fought three set match, securing them the District 6 Class AAAA championship.

State College won 3-0 (25-21, 25-21, 25-12) in their contest with the Wildcats at Bald Eagle Area.

It would be a total team effort that would secure the victory in all three games.

“ I feel like we were very error prone in the first set. Then we cleaned it up a little bit. I had the same feel in the second set. We started slow and committed a lot of errors. Central Mountains did a lot of good things pushing the ball to the corner,” said State College coach Chad Weight. “But we were able to weather the storm and we kind of got into a rhythm. Once we got into a Rhythm things were going our way.”

In the first set, the two teams went toe-to-toe as they combined for 21 side outs.

Central Mountain broke out into an early lead but State College stayed within striking distance for most of the contest, falling behind by no more than four points, 12-8.

Trailing 16-12, State College made their move.

After getting the ball back on a side out, Sarah Tate, who was all over the star column on the night, was able to roll off three consecutive service points. One was an ace.

With the game tied, the Little Lions made their move. After exchanging side outs, State College took the lead for the first time with an Ashlyn Arnold cross court smash. Picking up the service point was Emma Lally.

After numerous side outs, State College would get clutch service points Jessie Campbell, Alexis Fisher and Sophie Wales, en route to the 25-21 victory.

In the second game, State College would break out to a close lead with Central Mountain keeping the game close.

Tied at five, State would put Tate back to the service line. She once again came up strong for the Lady Lions. She hit another ace in her two service points, putting her team up 7-5.

After exchanging two side outs, Central Mountain would take the lead on the serving prowess of Emilee Heverly as she was able to reel off three service points, making it a 10-9 Wildcat lead.

Central Mountain would continue with the lead at 13-12.

State would bounce back thanks to a front row block by Tate, a soft push to the middle by Olivia Smith, two blasts by Campbell and a blast by Jazlyn Meyers.

After Kate Lally ran off three consecutive service points, the Little Lions took back the momentum.

State would take a 17-15 advantage and never looked back as Campbell notched three service points late in the contest, helping lead to a 25-21 victory to go up 2-0.

In the final game, State had the advantage early and built up a 14-11 advantage when Emily Lally came to the service line. She hit 10 consecutive service points to set up the Lions to a 24-11 advantage. She notched three aces in the run.

That would be all that the Little Lions would need as they went into the 25-12 victory and the D6 Crown.

State College will be back in action Tuesday at home in the first round of PIAA State action.