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Volleyball: Eagles defeat Westmont Hilltop, advance to district 6 championship

The Eagles huddle around Grace Hugar (16) after recording a score in the team’s district 6 semi-final match on Thursday.

By Kenny Varner

For The Express

WINGATE – They continue to sizzle.

After falling in the first round of last year’s District 6 playoffs, the Bald Eagle Area girls volleyball team has not lost a game since.

Coming into the season, the Lady Eagles were primed and ready to go further and deeper into the post season than just one game.

On Thursday, at their home gym, they won once again. The results were the same as the last 17 games.

An Eagles victory.

“The kids really understand what is asked of them. We knew their player Sarah Polacek was really dynamic. We had to get some blocks off. She does something a little different, and we did some stuff we haven’t done all year,” Bald Eagle coach Larry Campbell said. “I thought that Courtney Krall was more physical than what we saw on film. But I thought we adjusted pretty well though. The energy in the gym was really good. The kids fed off of it. We have a good group.”

Sizzling was an understatement as they decisively defeated the Lady Hilltoppers 25-13,25-16 and 25-18

Leading the way for the Eagles in kills were Grace Hugar and Jordan Anderson, finishing with a 15 and 10-kill performance, respectively.

Block leaders on the night were Anderson, Hugar and Madison Rockey, all with two.

Alyson Onder led the way in digs with 17.

Cirstynn Comly led the Eagles with two aces on the night.

Rounding out the scoring leaders was Rockey with 39 assists.

In the first set, the Lady Eagles’ front line was almost impenetrable as it collected numerous spikes.

Defensively, Bald Eagle did not allow a service point until after having an 18-7 lead.

Rockey got the game kick started on the service line, running off four consecutive points, turning a 4-1 contest, quickly into a 7-1 advantage.

The Eagles continued to roll over the Hilltoppers as Elita Brown stood up to the line and took a 10-4 lead and stretched it to 15-4 on her five service points.

That would be a lead that Bald Eagle would never look back on, winning 25-13.

It was gut check time in the second game as the Eagles found themselves trailing midway through the match. After a crucial time out taken by Lady Eagles head coach Larry Campbell to settle his team down, it was just what the doctor ordered as his team rattled off a 14-3 run en route to the 2-0 lead.

The Eagles’ comeback was because of the strong serving of Rockey and the tough front line play that was strong all evening.

In the end, the Lady Eagles run ended as a 25-16 victory, putting the home squad up 2-0.

In the final match of the night, the Hilltoppers tried couldn’t match up with the Lady Eagles squad as the Lady Eagles picked up the 3-0 sweep, winning 25-18.

Next up for the Eagles is a date for a District 6 title as Bald Eagle will travel to the Altoona Field house for a 3 p.m. title tilt on Saturday.

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