Deer Lakes defeats Saegertown 3-0 in PIAA Class AA state championship final – Volleyball news
Deer Lakes boys volleyball team was able to earn themselves the title of the PIAA Class AA state championship on Saturday by defeating Saegertown in a clean sweep. The match was played at the Penn State University’s Multi-Sport Indoor Facility.
The Panthers tried to significantly challenge the onslaught of Deer Lakes points in the first set but they could not manage to overcome them. In the next two sets, the performance of the Panthers was seen going downhill. As a result, it was not a hard job
for Deer Lakes to scrap together a win at the following final set scores: 25-20, 25-19 and 25-17.
Casey Handel, who is a senior in the Saegertown team, spoke about the match and said, “It’s an honor playing in the state championship match. Even though we lost, we can’t hang our heads. Somebody has to go home unhappy. But really, we’re happy too. We’re
the second team in Saegertown history to be in a state championship game. That means a lot.”
The first set of the game started off with the Lancers taking the lead early on at 6-1. Once they had the lead, the Lancers were able to extend their advantage. The increased pressure on the Panthers did not make them panic and instead they were able to
step up their game and bring the first set to a tie at 17-17. However, the Lancers were in no mood to give up and put on a spurt of speed by going on a 8-3 run that took them all the way to a win at 25-20.
Having lost the opening set of the game sent a much needed wake up call to the Panthers, who were able to give the Lancers a significant challenge and break their momentum at the start of the second set. Both the Lancers as well as the Panthers were almost
neck to neck for the initial stages of the set. The battle was intense in the middle stages with the score at 19-18 in favour of Deer Lakes. Unfortunately for the Panthers, the Lancers once again went on a run of 6-1 that propelled them all the way to bag
the second set at 25-19.
After having lost the first two sets of the match, the Panthers lost motivation and put in a half-hearted effort. Already going strong by having two sets under their bag, the Lancers took complete advantage of the attitude of the Panthers and smothered their
rivals. The Lancers won the third set by a bigger margin than the first two at 25-17.
This is not the first tournament win that the Lancers have been able to bag for themselves. They have won a total of four championships this season.
Tags: