Pine-Richland girls volleyball coach Angela Seman had a feeling at the start of the season that should her team make the playoffs, it could go on a deep run.
She kept her cards close to the vest, not explicitly telling her players her belief, wanting them to prove it organically as the season progressed.
She did, however, tell her players’ parents.
“I said, ‘You can tell them they’re great and good volleyball players,’ ” Seman said. “I wanted to keep us focused, take things day by day and not get too amped up throughout the year.”
The Rams (17-7, 6-4 in Section 2-4A) went on to substantiate Seman’s sentiments, appearing in both the WPIAL and PIAA championship matches.
“The girls had a goal in mind and were ready to do anything necessary to get that goal, which at the end of the day, was the state finals,” Seman said.
Even with a clearly defined goal and positive outlook, the season was a rocky one for the Rams as on any given night, Seman was unsure of which team she would see on the court.
“Sometimes we would come out firing on all cylinders, and when we did that, we knew we could get to where we wanted to go,” Seman said. “Other nights, we looked like a team that just wasn’t meshing well.”
A few weeks into the season, the team had a 3-3 record before a huge section match against Seneca Valley on Sept. 16.
The Rams swept the Raiders in three sets, and it catapulted them to a five-game winning streak that had them looking like a potential playoff team.
Then, after a 3-1 loss to North Allegheny and a win over North Catholic, the Rams and Raiders faced off again and this time Seneca Valley got the better of Pine-Richland with a 3-1 win.
The loss left Seman and her coaching staff outside the locker room postgame calculating whether the team would make the playoffs.
“We said, ‘Here’s where we stand. We’re going to squeak our way into the playoffs and this is probably who we’re going to go up against,’ ” Seman said. “The goal from there was to make it to the WPIAL finals.
“After I had that conversation with the players, there was a new level of focus from the girls. They came in every day wanting to get better, wanting to learn the scouting reports me and my staff put together. They began to play as one unit.”
After wins over North Hills (3-1) and Butler (3-0) to close out the regular season, the Rams opened the WPIAL playoffs as the fifth seed in Class 4A and took on No. 12 Latrobe in the first round.
Seman let her players know that the game would be the most mentally challenging of the WPIAL playoffs, just because the Wildcats weren’t as physical as the teams the Rams faced all year in section play.
“It would have been easy for us to play down a level and not play our best volleyball, but I told the girls before the playoffs started that we had three walls in front of us we needed to break down, and it started there,” Seman said. “We treated it like a business trip.”
The Rams went on to sweep Latrobe, 3-0, winning by scores of 25-10, 25-10 and 25-20.
Seman also was determined to get as many players in the match as possible to clear out any WPIAL jitters.
“We wanted to feel comfortable pulling anyone off the bench at any moment as quickly as possible,” Seman said. “We wanted everyone to be ready.”
The Rams then went on to sweep No. 4 Seneca Valley, 25-18, 25-18, 25-20.
“That was a definition of a chip on our shoulder,” Seman said. “We didn’t play well against them when they beat us in the regular season. Our girls learned our scouting reports like the back of their hands. We knew what they were going to run set-wise. We came to play from the jump.”
Advancing to the semifinals, the Rams were set to square off against top-seeded North Allegheny, the eight-time defending state champions.
The Tigers swept the regular season series with a pair of 3-1 wins, and Seman knew it was going to be a tough matchup.
“They’re a really great team with a really great coaching staff,” Seman said. “I’m friends with them outside of the season. We knew it was going to be really hard.”
After a lengthy first set that had the Rams come out with a 27-25 win, they went on to complete the sweep, winning the next two sets 25-17 and 25-20.
“Those are games where if you play them 40 times, you would lose 39 of those times,” Seman said. “But we knew if we won the serve-pass battle, we shut down their two big hitters — Molly Robertson and Alicia Mokube — and that if we were clean and consistent and made fewer errors than they did, that it was definitely possible.”
Coming off a spectacular win over the Tigers, the Rams had a date with No. 2 seed Peters Township for WPIAL gold.
In the regular season, the Rams had beaten the Indians, 3-1, but did not come prepared to play in the title match, and were swept 26-24, 25-21 and 25-11.
“I realize I needed to do more of a job preparing them mentally for games like that, and I took full accountability,” Seman said. “But I think it was a gift at the end of the day because it lit a fire under us that I had never seen in this program that ultimately helped us reach the state finals.”
Just like they did in the first three rounds of the WPIAL playoffs, the Rams cruised through the PIAA playoffs, dropping only one set on their way to the title match against Spring-Ford.
In the title match, Spring-Ford’s two outside hitters were too much for the Rams to overcome in a 3-1 loss.
“They took every single swing and were very high jumpers,” Seman said. “Their reach was so high, they cleared our block attempts every single time. The film didn’t do them justice when we scouted them.”
Despite the loss, coming away with a pair of silver medals from their two playoff runs still meant the season was a success and proved Seman’s gut feeling at the start of the season to be correct.
“This is the first year in a really long time that the senior class has followed through with their goals and commitments,” Seman said. “That was huge for us.”
Senior Isabelle Hoppe was at the top of nearly every statistical category for the Rams this season. She was tied for first on the team in aces with junior Avery Daugherty with 34, produced 260 kills and had 219 digs, both second on the team.
“Isabelle is probably the highest decorated volleyball player to walk the halls of Pine-Richland since Jamel Nicholas,” Seman said.
Senior libero Megan DeKunder led the team in digs with 239 and fellow senior middle Valerie Menke led the team in hit percentage (48) and kill percentage (57.8) and was second in blocks (32).
Junior Piper Vogel led the team with 346 kills, averaging four a set, and fellow junior Olivia Moye led the team with 49 blocks.
The Rams also got major contributions from others throughout the playoffs.
Sophomore Ella Hernandez didn’t play in the middle of the season due to an injury but came back in time for playoffs and played a major role in wins over Seneca Valley and North Allegheny.
“She played JV and dressed varsity, but just with her improvement throughout the year, coupled with how much she grew height-wise — she was 5-9 last year, but is now 6-2, so a significant increase,” Seman said. “She added so much height and versatility for us that we were excited to have her back.”
Also coming back from injury was junior Sophie Kessinger, who arrived just in time for the PIAA playoffs.
“Sophie was a crucial part for us last year in the outside rotation, but specifically on defense,” said Seman. “She came in the back row for one of our other outside hitters and added great defense and the ability to attack out of the back row.”
Alana Seifert put together a strong freshman campaign, and Emily Faber joined varsity for the playoffs and competed for a right-side role, doing the job required of her.
“I have enjoyed watching our underclassmen and junior class grow as much as they did this year, which gives me a lot of excitement for next season,” Seman said. “We will be looking for new leaders and new captains, those girls who can come through in the tough situations where we really need a point and who they will be. We have a very bright future the next few years with the amount of talent we have.”