Lillian Otto Aliquippa traveled to Hopewell on Wednesday for another WPIAL Section 2A match after taking care of Freedom last night. Hopewell improved their season record to 8-0 (6-0 in Section) with a 3-0 win, 25-11, 25-21 & 25-6.
Hopewell came out strong in Set 1, jumping out to 8-0 lead off of Ella Goodrum’s strong serving start. Aliquippa did get the score back to 20-7 at one point, but Hopewell finished Set 1 strong, with the score 25-11.
In Set 2, Aliquippa jumped out to an early lead, going up 6-11. Hopewell continued to keep pace, slowly crawling back into the match at 16-16. Aliquippa wouldn’t go away though; trading points up until 20-20. From that point on though, Hopewell grabbed some breathing room behind some key Bella Ceccarelli serves, to pull out the set 2 win 25-21.
In Set 3, Hopewell was dominant from the start with Brianna Inderelst and Ella Goodrum teamed up to jump out to 14-0 lead. Inderelst had several powerful kills off of Ceccarelli sets in the first half of the match with Goodrum serving for 14 straight points. Mikayla Kurta and Lahna Murray also played a back half of the 3rd set giving Aliquippa no room to respond. Marina Pinchotti finished off the last 4 points to end the match with a commanding 25-6 final score.
Players with a shoutout tonight are Ella Goodrum and Brianna Inderelst. They simply took over in the start of Set 3, righting a few of the wrongs the occurred in Set 2 and led Hopewell to a dominant finish to the match.
All eyes now turn their focus to next Tuesday 9/23 for a home match vs OLSH, who like Hopewell is also undefeated in 2A Section 1 play. Spread the word to make sure there is a big crowd on hand for what looks to be an excellent matchup.
Here is a recap of tonight’s matchup:
Set 1:
1-0 Hopewell on the board off an Ella Goodrum serve
3-0 Inderelst with a kill
7-0 Lahna Murray with a kill
8-1 Goodrum’s hot serve streak comes to an end
10-1 Bella Ceccarelli with an ace
13-2 Murray with back-to-back aces
14-5 Mikayla Kurta hammers a return for a point
17-6 Inderelst pass to Ceccarelli set to Kurta for the quick kill
19-6 Marina Pinchotti with an ace
20-7 Addison Blosnick with a kill
23-10 Cici Smetana pass to Ceccarelli to a running kill by Murray
24-11 Good read on a long serve from Aliquippa
25-11 Hopewell wins set 1 on a Murray serve
Set 2:
1-0 Hopewell on the board first on a Ceccarelli serve
3-2 A good read by Goodrum on a long serve
4-9 Aliquippa pushing back in Set 2
5-9 Ceccarelli dumps a set into the middle to stop the run
6-10 Inderelst with a nice back row kill
8-12 Goodrum with a serve causing an Aliquippa error
9-14 Inderelst with a tip over
10-14 Murray with a nice kill to the back corner
11-15 Inderelst hammers a kill off a Ceccarelli set
13-16 Avery Boyd and Kurta combine for a block
16-16 Inderelst with a serve to tie the set up
17-17 Inderelst pass to Ceccarelli that Kurta finishes off
18-19 Blosnick with a kill
20-20 Murray with a great kill to tie it back up
21-20 Goodrum with an ace
23-21 Hopewell with a little breathing room off back-to-back Ceccarelli serves
24-21 Murray with another strong kill
25-21 Murray kills a return to finish set 2
Set 3:
1-0 Hopewell on the board with a strong kill from Inderelst
3-0 Inderelst with another kill
5-0 Inderelst with another kill of a cross court set from Ceccarelli
7-0 Inderelst on fire from the left side.
9-0 Goodrum with back-to-back aces on her 9th straight serve
14-0 Goodrum keeping it going with another ace
16-2 Murray with a kill
18-2 Murray with an ace
19-3 Kurta with a kill off a Ceccarelli set
20-3 Inderelst with an ace
22-3 Davis pass to Ceccarelli to Lily Oldham which forces an Aliquippa error
23-6 Sky Ross with a kill off the set from Pisano
24-6 Pinchotti with an ace
25-6 Pinchotti serves causing an error to end the Match
Earlier in the evening, the Junior Varsity team improved their season record to 7-1, with an impressive 2-0 victory vs Aliquippa.
In the first set, the JV squad was dominant, with both a strong offensive and defensive showing. In the second set, Aliquippa played better, staying with Hopewell until mid-way through the set, where Hopewell eventually pulled away.
JV Scores
Set 1 – 25-4
Set 2 – 25-14
