YATESVILLE – Emilee Shaw helped get service back for Pittston Area in the third set of Monday’s home Wyoming Valley Conference girls volleyball match with rival Wyoming Area.
Then, Shaw made sure the Lady Patriots held serve.
Shaw ran off nine straight points with her serve, six of which the Lady Warriors were unable to return, to help put away a 25-10, 25-23, 25-17 victory.
The junior consistently fired hard serves low into the Wyoming Area back line on the way to finishing the match with 11 service points, six aces, 11 digs and five kills.
“Emilee has really worked hard on her serve ever since she was a freshman,” Pittston Area coach Johanna Rehill said. “She has now perfected it being a junior.
“She got better last year and she has just perfected it this year.”
Shaw found another way to erase Pittston Area’s last deficit of the match, starting what was actually a streak of 10 straight points with a set for an Emma Coles kill after Wyoming Area had scored five straight to ahead 15-14 in the third set.
The first Shaw serve was an ace and the kept the streak going until the Lady Patriots had built a 23-15 lead.
Pittston Area won the first set comfortably, scored the last two points of the second set, then overcame Wyoming Area scoring the first four points of the final set.
Michalie Mazurkivich, who joins Coles as the team’s only seniors, had a team-high 13 kills, along with seven service points. Coles added six service points and four kills.
“They find those open spots and they swing hard,” Rehill said.
Junior setter Tiara George had 22 assists.
“She hustles to everything and fights for everything,” Rehill said. “You’ll see her on the floor a lot of times. If it’s a rough pass, she’ll get to everything. She rarely calls for help.
“And, her sets were absolutely beautiful.”
Pittston Area added another win later in the week and is 4-2 with all of the wins coming by sweeps. The only losses were to Nanticoke and defending champion Holy Redeemer, two of the WVC’s three unbeatens. The Lady Patriots are the only team to take Nanticoke to five sets this season.
“I really am so proud of them,” Rehill said. “ … They have the fire under them and they have a lot of momentum going right now.”
Wyoming Area (1-4) was led by Marissa Kovaleski with 22 assists and seven service points. Hannah Garinger had 11 kills, Selena Forlenza had seven digs and five kills and Alison Lynch had five digs, four service points and two aces.
“We switched up our formation today, which I think is going to work out better for us,” first-year Wyoming Area coach Sarah Fugate said. “They seemed more confident.”
