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Hopewell Girls Basketball

Hopewell HS Girls Basketball

Hopewell Girls Beat Ambridge for 1st Section Win

by Mike Vukovcan
written by Mike Vukovcan 1 minutes read

Congratulations to the Hopewell High School Girls basketball team for a 52-31 win over Ambridge. This was the Lady Vikings first section win of the 2025-26 season.

Hopewell led 13-9 after the 1st quarter and then increased that lead to 26-13 at halftime.

Taking a look at the Hopewell box score, sophomore Addison Blosnick led the way with 14 points, followed by junior Avery Boyd with 10 points. Next up were sophomore Cici Smetana and freshman Ava Ray both with 9 points apiece, then Allison Ramaley with 8 and freshman Lily Enders with 2.

It’s been a challenging season, but this group of girls continue to battle and compete.

Next to is a home matchup on Monday against Central Valley.

 

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Hopewell Girls Junior High Basketball

Hopewell 8th Grade Girls Basketball w/Big Upset Over South Fayette

by Mike Vukovcan
written by Mike Vukovcan 1 minutes read

After opening the season with wins over Freedom, the Hopewell Junior High girls’ basketball teams got on the bus Tuesday afternoon for a trip to South Fayette, a district that is always more than competitive.

The Vikings 7th grade team played a strong game but, in the end, came up short, losing to South Fayette, 35-28.

Rilynn Davis led the Lady Vikings with 15 points, while Isla Rock scored 6 points and Callie Sadler and Vanessa Kurta each contributed 2 points.

Defensively, the South Fayette team used the press which the Lady Vikings impressively had a lot of success breaking. This is a talented group of girls, that put in the time, they’ll have success.

The Hopewell 8th grade team came away with a very impressive 46-43 victory. In that game, the Lady Vikings only missed 3 layups the entire game.

Speaking of talent, this group of girls has it, and it will be very exciting to watch this group of ladies compete and develop at the high school level in the years to come.

Leading the way for Hopewell was Ellie McCoy, who scored a career-high 19 points, while Amiya Shell scored an impressive 18 points. Just wait till those two get to high school.

Airanna Shell had 4 points, including the game-winning shot (which is the video below), while Afton Budris also had 3 important points in the game.

The Hopewell Junior High team will be back in action today as they go on the road to take on Avonworth, another tough opponent.

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Hopewell Girls Junior High BasketballHopewell Girls Junior High Volleyball

Hopewell’s Ava Ray is Small in Size but a Giant in Heart and Compete Level

by Mike Vukovcan
written by Mike Vukovcan 4 minutes read

While size is often a huge factor in sports, it’s not always the determining factor in the success of a team or of an individual player.

More often than not, it’s not the size of player but the size of their heart and willingness to compete.

To borrow a quote from Mark Twain, “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”

All of that perfectly describes Hopewell Vikings 8th grade athlete Ava Ray.

Anyone that knows Ava, whose nickname is ‘Peanut’, knows that she isn’t physically the biggest athlete but when it comes to her heart, scrappiness and compete level, she’s one of the biggest athletes on the court.

Hopewell’s Ava Ray

Ray is a three-sport athlete at Hopewell, competing on the volleyball court, basketball court and this season, she’ll be competing in Track and Field for the first time.

Vikings Sports Now had the pleasure of speaking with Ray about her Vikings athletic career, as she talked to us about each of these sports.

The first thing I talked to Ava about is the thing that I notice every time I watch her play and that’s her energy level. She told me that she got that mindset from her dad, Ryan, who’s always told her that she’s always going to play with high energy and will have to work and compete harder than the players she’s going up against.

Hopewell’s Ava Ray

“In both basketball and volleyball, I’d say that my quickness on the court is my biggest individual strength,” Ray tells Vikings Sports Now. “People have always asked me, how do I always have so much energy (laughing), I don’t know but I do.

That quickness and energy is always on display on the basketball court as Ray has been the starting point guard for the Vikings Junior High Basketball team for the last couple of seasons.

Ray is your prototypical point guard, in that she is a tremendous defender, handler of the basketball and her court vision allows her to get the ball to her teammates. While those are definite strong points, Ray points to something else that isn’t kept tracked of in the scorebook.

Hopewell’s Ava Ray

“I also think that I’m a good leader and someone that likes to help out my teammates,” said Ray. “If they’re not doing something right or struggling with something, I like to try and talk to them and help them. I’m someone that’s not afraid to speak up.”

The fact that Ray has named captain of the volleyball team for the last two years is an example of her leadership skills.

While I brought up her defense and passing as her strong points on the basketball court, Ray pointed something else out and it’s something that she’s worked very hard on to improve.

“I think my shooting ability is a strong part of my game but as the point guard, I try and do a combination of both passing to my teammates but also shooting the ball. I really like shooting, but I also want to make sure that my teammates get it so that they can shoot too so it’s not just me shooting.”

“I’d rather shoot the ball from the outside than around the basket because it’s hard for me to get around the rim because of my height,” said Ray. “When I’m around the rim, I get blocked a lot (laughing).”

Once of the reasons Ray enjoys shooting from the outside is because of how much she’s improved in that area. The reason for her getting better isn’t by magic or accident, Ray has put in a ton of time practicing in her backyard as well as at the Reign3D Training Academy in Beaver Falls.

“When I’m at Reign3D, I probably take about 100 3-point shots and when I’m in my backyard, I shot 50+ shots.”

We ended our conversation about basketball with Ray telling me that she’s excited for taking her skills to the high school team next season. Despite being a starter the last couple of years, she knows that she’s going to have to prove herself again to the high school staff but she’s looking forward to trying to earn playing time.

Ray will get a chance to improve her basketball skills over the upcoming months as she received an invitation to join the Reign3D AAU Basketball team. Congratulations on that Ava because that’s an impressive accomplishment.

When talking about volleyball, this is a sport that Ava only started playing two years ago but she’s picked it up well.

“I started playing because of my friend, Sydney Malackanich. I would go to her games and watched her play, and it looked fun. I was surprised at how quick I picked up the sport because honestly, I didn’t think that I would be good at it. But I’ve done Ok at it.”

Ray tells me the biggest difference between the two sports and hardest thing for her is in basketball, she’s able to run up and down the court but in volleyball, she has to stay in your position. When you’re the Energizer Bunny, it’s difficult not to be moving all around!

Hopewell’s Ava Ray

Moving around is something that Ray will be able to do in the latest sport that she’s giving a try and that’s Track and Field. After watching her brother, Bryce, excel in the long jump for the Vikings HS Track and Field Team, she wants to give it a try. Like Bryce, she plans on competing in the long jump as well as run the 100M.

Practice for Track and Field will begin for Ray, once her volleyball season ends this Wednesday.

When asked which of these sports she likes the best, Ray couldn’t name one and said she likes them all.

The future of Girl’s Athletics in the Hopewell School District is very strong for the upcoming years and Ray is someone that will be fun to follow!

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Hopewell HS Girls Basketball

Hopewell HS Girls Basketball Gets WPIAL Playoff 1st Round Matchup

by Mike Vukovcan
written by Mike Vukovcan 1 minutes read

The second season of the high school basketball seasons starts this week with the opening of the WPIAL Basketball Playoffs.

After qualifying on Thursday, Section 2, the Hopewell Lady Vikings will start action later this week.

The WPIAL basketball committee unveiled the playoff brackets for both the Boys and Girls, and it comes as no surprise that Hopewell has received a tough draw.

Since they entered the playoffs as a 4th place team, Hopewell was expecting to take on one of the top teams in Class 4A and that’s exactly what was decided on.

Coach Homziak and Hopewell will open up the playoffs by taking on 1st place Elizabeth Forward, which finished the regular season with a record of 17-4 and 13-1 in conference.

The game between Hopewell and Elizabeth Forward will be played on Monday, February 17th at Elizabeth Forward High School.

This is the third consecutive season that they Lady Vikings have qualified for the WPIAL playoffs. Last season as the 9th seed, Hopewell took on 8th seed Greensburg Salem and lost.

The WPIAL Basketball Championships will take place at the Peterson Events Center from Feb 27th thru March 1st. The defending Girls 4A champion is North Catholic who defeated Blackhawk in OT, 40-37.

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Hopewell HS Girls Basketball

Hopewell Loses to CV But Still Qualifies For Playoffs

by Mike Vukovcan
written by Mike Vukovcan 3 minutes read

Hopewell Township- The Hopewell Girls entered tonights game Central Valley with two ways to make the playoffs- 1) beat Central Valley and they’d qualify 2) Beaver beats Hampton.

The first option didn’t happen as Hopewell competes hard but lost 53-47. Luckily for the Lady Vikings, they received help from Beaver as they defeated Hampton, 61-36.

That means Hopewell has qualified for the WPIAL Playoffs and will find out their opponent this weekend.

In terms of tonight’s game, the game was pretty much decided in the first quarter.

When you’re going up a CV head coach Chris Raso, one of the best basketball coaches (boys or girls) in the WPIAL, you need to take advantage of opportunities and Hopewell didn’t do that.

In the first quarter alone, Hopewell missed at least 6 wide open shots from the paint and missed 10 free throws in the first half.

Instead of trailing by 14 points at halftime, this very easily could’ve been a 2/3 point game which would’ve made the 2nd half much more interesting where Hopewell outscored CV, 29-21.

Credit to CV for being the better team for the length of the game and that’s why they came out on top tonight.

Two players for Hopewell that really stood out to me tonight were Alyssa Spang and Maya Richburg. Spang was a monster on the boards and competed hard in the paint and defensively.

Although she didn’t lead them in scoring, Richburg was one of the best players on the floor tonight for Hopewell.  She was completely locked in physically, emotionally and played with a great passion making a number of winning plays for the Lady Vikings.

1st Quarter Recap-

*Off the opening tip, Richburg got the tip and drove the left wing for a layup, Hopewell 2-0.

*After a defensive rebound, Caylee Sundy raced up the court and fed Avery Boyd with a perfect bounce pass for a layup, CV 15-6.

End of 1st Quarter: CV 15 Hopewell 7

2nd Quarter Recap- 

*As she did a lot tonight, Boyd drove to the paint for 2, CV 15-9.

*Sundy with a great across the block pass to Boyd for a layup, CV 26-14.

*Boyd with a nice steal at half court as she jumped up to intercept a pass, she then fed Sundy for a layup, CV 28-16

*Sundy with a rebound, pushes it up court, finds Richburg , who was fouled shooting. Maya went 2-for-2 at the line, 18-28.

Halftime: CV 32 Hopewell 18

3rd Quarter Recap:

*Sundy with a rebound, takes it to other end and finds Boyd for 2, as she drives the wing, CV 35-20

*A few minutes later same exact thing, Boyd 2 more, CV 35-24

*Nice passing at top of key for Hopewell as Richburg eventually gets it to Sundy, who drains a 3, CV 41-29.

*Once again more ball movement, this time the ball eventually gets inside to Spang, who finishes, CV 45-31.

*Then a true buzzer beater as Sundy throws up a shot from midcourt and it goes in!

End of 3rd Quarter- CV 47 Hopewell 34

4th Quarter Recap-

*Hopewell transition, Sundy to Addison Blosnick for 2, CV 47-36.

*With 4:19 left, ball goes inside to Blosnick who gets it out to Sundy for 3, CV 49-40.

*After that shot, Hopewell had 3 or 4 possessions to get closer but couldn’t.

*With 1:16 left, Richburg converts a 3, CV 51-43.

*With :30 left, Hopewell got it to 6 on a Boyd layup but that’s as close as they got.

Final Score: Central Valley 53 Hopewell 47

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