Published: November 05, 2009 11:25 pm      

District 5 Volleyball: Cougars girls claim sixth straight title

SHANKSVILLE — The North Star girls volleyball team won its sixth consecutive District 5 championship by sweeping three games against Windber on Thursday at Shanksville High.

“I would have never imagined three games against a quality team like that,” said North Star coach Tony Crisafulli, whose team is 20-0. “Windber is well-coached. They play hard. They play aggressive. We had some balls fall when we needed to. Our defense just stepped up, and unbelievably so.”

North Star won 25-15 in Game 1 and battled to a 25-19 victory in Game 2. The clincher was 25-15 in the third game.

“That’s probably the best that they’ve passed off the serve-receive as I’ve seen all year,” Windber coach Don Byer said. “Because they passed so well, that gave them more options on offense. We didn’t pass very well on our serve-receive, which did not give us any options as far as offense.”

Windber is 16-3 and had a solid showing throughout the season and postseason.

“We had a good year,” Byer said. “There’s no doubt about it. But to take that step after the good year would be a very big accomplishment.

“I’m glad we played North Star. All of these girls are winners tonight. There was nobody that went off the floor as a loser. It’s tough. It’s over. The girls have got to learn from it and move on.”

North Star’s seniors and underclassmen don’t know what life is like without a district title.

“Our program is very strong. We work hard year after year,” said Cougars senior Chelsea Danel, who had 29 assists and nine service points. “We know we have a big target on our back. Coach Crisafulli prepares us for what is expected of us. As far as the past years, we just try to live up to what is expected of us.

“We’ve been through it. We know what it’s like,” Danel added, referring to big-game experience. “We know how to stay up and keep our teammates positive the whole game, no matter what.”

Junior middle hitter Emily Lohr had 18 kills, and senior outside hitter Karen Schmidt had 11 service points and nine kills for North Star. Senior outside hitter Stefanie Miller had 10 kills.

“It’s an incredible blessing to work with these girls,” Crisafulli said. “They just have such desire and determination. I didn’t know what to expect because we didn’t play well the other night (in the semifinal win over McConnellsburg). They just went beyond what I would have imagined and they did what they had to do.”

Windber sophomore Leah Brutz had 17 assists. Junior Danielle Nihoff had seven service points, four aces and four kills. Senior Alyssa Ott had five kills, and junior Corrine Gahagen had nine kills.

“We have two seniors graduating and we have everybody back except some key positions,” Byer said. “We’ll work on it over the summer and see what we can do.”

North Star advances to regional play and will meet the District 7 runner-up on Tuesday at a site and time to be determined. The District 7 championship will be decided on Saturday.

“We’ll have to wait and see what happens,” Crisafulli said.