HEGINS — Listening to tributes from parents brought tears to the eyes of Tri-Valley’s seniors before Tuesday’s Schuylkill League Division III girls’ volleyball match.
By the end of the night, those Bulldog seniors were happier — and division champions — after the Dawgs rolled to a 25-19, 25-19, 25-22 sweep of Upper Dauphin.
“It was Senior Night, so of course they were pumped and ready to play,” Tri-Valley’s first-year head coach Alice Scheib said. “They did OK. ”
The win clinched Tri-Valley’s first division championship since 2012 and a berth in the Schuylkill League semifinals.
Four players who started Tuesday’s match were members of that division title squad.
“As a first-year coach, I often think we’re going to be OK, and so far we have been OK,” Scheib said. “I could be wrong sometimes. It’s nothing about being the coach at all. These girls know how to play the game. They do their job.”
Tuesday’s match also was a duel between two of Division III’s leading hitters — Tri-Valley’s Maddie Deibert and Upper Dauphin’s Laura Sweger. By the finish, the two had combined for 36 kills.
But the Trojans (10-8, 6-7 D-III) committed too many errors to stay with the Dawgs (14-2, 11-2).
“The difference was consistency,” Upper Dauphin head coach Terry Bowser said. “We did not have consistency with our passing. If we could just be a little more consistent with that, we’d be a lot better off.”
The errors showed up early as Tri-Valley went out to a 12-5 lead in the opening set. Upper Dauphin rallied within two points at 20-18 before kills by Tri-Valley’s Deibert, Cat Troutman and Kat Sherry gave the Dawgs some breathing room.
The break between sets appeared to refresh Upper Dauphin, which used aces by Mickayla Grow and Alexis Weaver, along with several Tri-Valley mistakes, to take a 10-4 lead to begin the second set.
But the Dawgs slowly regained their footing and trailed 13-12 when Upper Dauphin’s Alexis Bowser served into the net to tie the match.
Sherry then went behind the service line and Tri-Valley responded with eight straight points for a 21-14 lead. Upper Dauphin never got closer than five points to the end of the set.
Sherry served three aces during her run, but mistakes littered the rest of the second set. There was just one kill by both teams in the set’s final 20 points.
That changed when the third set began. Deibert posted kills for six of Tri-Valley’s first nine points of the set.
But led by Sweger’s six kills in the set, Upper Dauphin did not fold, instead tying the set for the final time at 20-20.
Tri-Valley scored five of the final seven points, including back-to-back aces by Deibert, to seal the 3-0 sweep.
Deibert finished with three aces to go with 17 kills for the Dawgs. Reagan Newswanger added 22 assists while Sherry had three aces and two kills. Troutman added five kills and two blocks.
Sweger led all players with 19 kills for the Trojans. Grow had four aces and 11 assists. Bowser posted 17 digs while Gracie Miller added 10.
With the Division III title, Tri-Valley advances to Tuesday’s Schuylkill League semifinal match against Division I champion Blue Mountain.
Scheib said the Bulldogs have plenty of work ahead.
“We just want them to push it into the back corners. We’re going to work on that,” Scheib said of her team’s upcoming practices. “Just continue to work on serves so they’re consistent and work on coverage in the middle.”
Upper Dauphin has regular-season matches remaining against Mifflin County and Millersburg today and Thursday. Bowser said there is no room for error in the Trojans’ quest for a District 3 Class A playoff berth.
“We’ve got three in a row (including Tuesday’s match) and they’re all tough,” he said, “But I think we have to win at least one of them to get in. It’s not going to be easy. If we get in, we’ll have earned it, I guess.”
Upper Dauphin won the JV match 2-0.