Marty Matvey came to the Fox Chapel girls basketball team in 2019, just a few months after the Foxes’ last trip to the PIAA playoffs.
He had just helped guide South Park to a WPIAL Class 4A semifinal appearance and a trip to the state tournament.
While the Foxes have achieved success in Matvey’s seven seasons at the helm, a return trip to states had eluded the program.
That is no longer the case as Fox Chapel is on the cusp of its return to the PIAA tournament, and Matvey said he’s excited for his players to experience March basketball and be one of the 32 Class 5A girls teams still standing.
“For me, the staff and the girls, it’s a great feeling, especially considering where we were last year at this time, a month into the offseason,” said Matvey, whose Foxes will travel to District 3 champion York Suburban on Saturday for a 4 p.m. first-round game.
“The girls really galvanized themselves and made that strong run to the WPIAL playoffs. It is so good for the program.”
Matvey said it was great to see the girls earn the right to play in the PIAA tournament. In 2019, the Foxes made the quarterfinals of the WPIAL Class 6A tournament and lost to eventual champion Peters Township. Under the follow-the-leader format, Fox Chapel was awarded the fifth and final PIAA berth as the team Peters Township beat in the round of eight.
The top eight teams in Class 5A qualified for states this year, and Fox Chapel reached the quarterfinals with a 60-58 thriller over Latrobe in the first round at home. It was the Foxes’ seventh win in a row.
“We earned it, and the girls are proud of that,” Matvey said. “Yes, we had some pretty tough games after that first game with Thomas Jeffeson and then into the consolations. But I told the girls, ‘Hey, you are one of the top eight left. This is what it looks like to still be playing.’
“That was good for us because the majority of our team, outside of (senior) Lyla (Jablon) and our other senior, Sophia Jacobs, are coming back. The games in the WPIAL tournament and Saturday’s game are such great experiences for the younger girls. They see what the standard is for teams playing for a WPIAL title and playing for states.”
Fox Chapel, the No. 7 seed for WPIALs, suffered a 72-44 loss to Thomas Jefferson in the WPIAL quarterfinals.
The Foxes then ran into No. 3 Indiana and suffered a 49-28 setback. A 68-45 loss to No. 9 Trinity in the seventh-place game locked them into the No. 8 seed for states.
“Thomas Jefferson, they shot 68 percent from the field in the first half in that game,” Matvey said. “Any time they had the ball, they were scoring within three seconds. Against Trinity and Indiana, we had stretches where we were right in the game. We were down three at halftime at Indiana and then had a poor third quarter. We were hanging in there against Trinity except for one bad quarter. We felt bad because in those games, we had a chance to win. We were so close, but then at times, we felt so far away. We’ve had some girls step up in those games.”
Fox Chapel (15-11) scrimmaged Seneca Valley before the start of the WPIAL playoffs and the Raiders, who lost to Upper St. Clair in the Class 6A third-place consolation, fell to York Suburban, 51-39, at the Play 4 Mae season kickoff showcase at Woodland Hills. York Suburban (22-2) won its third consecutive District 3 Class 5A title.
“I watched York Suburban play lot of teams, but I wanted to give the girls the flavor of it from a team we were aware of,” Matvey said. “We know how good Seneca is, and we watched York Suburban take it to them. The girls understand the challenge they have ahead of them. With our style and at the pace we play, we have eight guards playing an intense, 90-foot game of basketball for four months now. We’ve been working on managing their legs the last week and a half since we’ve had the break after the WPIAL games.
“The focus this week, in addition to preparing for Saturday, has been about having additional opportunities to be together as a team. They enjoy that time together creating stronger bonds. The key thing for the girls is for them to stay focused for the remainder of this season, however long that is.”