Lady Hornets top Wyalusing 3-1 to win District IV title

By: Ed Weaver  /  November 6, 2015

For the second time in four years, the Wellsboro Volleyball team won a District IV championship. The girls defeated Wyalusing 3-1 on Thursday, November 5 at Williamson High School.

It's diffucult for a team to beat an opponent three times in one year, but that's exactly what the Lady Hornets did. In a rematch of last year's title game, won 3-2 by Wyalusing, the Lady Hornets were out for revenge and to put their names in the history books. The last time Wellsboro won the title in 2012, members of this year's team were in seventh and eighth grade.

The focused Lady Hornets took the first set 25-16 as they controlled the net, and were all over the court defensively. Wellsboro won the second set 25-23 as they held off a Lady Rams' late rally.

Wyalusing wouldn't go down without a fight as they got Wellsboro off their game in the third set, a set the Lady Hornets have had trouble with all year long. The Lady Hornets tied the score up at 5-5 on a long volley, but then faltered as Wyalusing ran off 10 straight points to run away with a 25-12 victory.

Leading 2-1, the Lady Hornets regrouped in the fourth set. After trailing 3-0 early, the girls tied it up, then kept it close. After tying the score back up at 11-11, Wellsboro turned the tables and went on a 6-0 run to push the score to 17-11, then closed out the match on two four point runs.

With senior Darci Warriner serving on set point, Wyalusing returned the ball back to senior Mikayla Feil, who in turn sent a hard shot to the back line. The shot deflected off a Lady Ram, another tried to recover, but the ball sailed to the Wyalusing bench ending the Rams' season and sending Wellsboro home with a 25-14 victory and the championship crown.

"Winning tonight means just as much to me as it did four years ago," said head coach Sharon Zuchowski. "The girls have worked hard all year and finally conquered a couple of our demons tonight in tip coverage and serve receive. Overall, the girls really played well and I'm very proud of them. It's nice to see a season culminate in a championship."

In Wellsboro's previous two games with Wyalusing this season, Wyalusing took Wellsboro to five sets in both of them, with the Hornets barely hanging on. That was something Coach Zuchowski heard in the days leading up to the game after Wyalusing knocked off Shamokin last weekend.

"We really wanted this one bad," Zuchowski explained. "We wanted to show we were the better team and we didn't want to mess around and come out and show what we were made of and I think we did that."

"It means everything to us and it feels great," said senior Haley Zuchowski.

"We gave it all we had tonight," said senior Maddy Kyle. "We knew that there was no other option and we had to get it done in that last set."

"We're a very talented group and when we put it all together we have a really good outcome and work well as a team," said senior Hannah Wagaman.

Feil led the team with 13 kills, junior Kirsten Florio had 12, and Warriner finished with 9. Junior Morgan Florio recorded 19 assists, sophomore Brianne Keane had 10, and Kyle finished with 7. Wagaman led the team with 25 digs, Zuchowski pitched in 18, and Warriner added 12, with Kirsten Florio adding 5 blocks.

Zuchowski scored a team-high 17 points, including 5 aces, to lead the Lady Hornets. Morgan Florio finished with 10 points and an ace, and Warriner and Kirsten Florio each scored 6 points.

The team improves their record to 17-2 (9-2 NTL Division 1). The team will now wait for their seeding in the PIAA State Playoffs at a date, time, and location to be determined.