Some of the most accomplished volleyball players in District 2 lead their teams into Tuesday’s semifinal doubleheaders.
In Class 3A, a doubleheader will be hosted by top-seeded Berwick. It starts with No. 3 Crestwood (17-2) facing the No. 2 seed Abington Heights (21-0), the Lackawanna League champ, at 5 p.m. Then, No. 5 Dallas (17-4) plays defending champion Berwick (16-1) in the second match. Berwick, the Wyoming Valley Conference champion, beat Dallas, 3-0, in the WVC season.
The Class 2A doubleheader is at Blue Ridge. No. 6 seed Western Wayne (11-9) plays No. 2 Holy Redeemer (18-3), the defending champion, at 5 p.m. It is a rematch of last season’s title match won by the Royals, 3-0. Then, fourth-seeded Lake-Lehman (12-7) faces No. 1 Blue Ridge (18-1) in the second semifinal. Blue Ridge beat Lake-Lehman, 3-1, in the regular season.
Semifinals winners advance to a championship doubleheader Thursday at Wilkes University. Class 2A plays at 5 p.m., followed by the Class 3A championship.
Class 3A
Abington Heights has a balanced attack. Anna Krempasky has 178 kills, Hilde Temblador has 147, Abigail MacDonald has 137 and Kiki Beck has 115. Brielle Wentz has 378 assists, and Temblador has 218.
Senior Madison Smith has 233 digs and reached 1,000 for her career earlier this season. Wentz has 124 digs and Bella Carr has 108 digs.
Claire Savner, a 6-1 middle hitter, leads Crestwood with 102 kills and 51 blocks. Lilah Barrett has 94 kills and Kady Schreiner has 324 assists.
Berwick dominated all season, losing only five sets. Grace Robbins has 208 kills and Angie Colone has 178. Junior Julia Rauch runs an efficient offense with 524 assists. Zoey Force leads the team defensively with 196 digs, while Makayla Brown has 124, Rauch has 118 and Colone has 116.
Karly Kovitch leads Dallas with 236 assists. Juliana Torres has 101 kills, Aurora Deem has 95 kills and Izabela Makukova has 91 kills.
In the first meeting against Berwick, Torres had five kills, and Kovitch had 10 assists.
Class 2A
Lauren Beamer will lead Western Wayne against traditional power Holy Redeemer.
Beamer, who has 1,042 kills in her career, is headed to Shippensburg University. In last season’s championship match against Holy Redeemer, she had 12 kills, and she had 10 in a 3-0 loss in a nonleague match Oct. 17.
Abbie Washine has 419 assists and Adyson Wargo has 96 digs for Western Wayne.
Holy Redeemer has 18 District 2 Class 2A championships. Senior Bella Boylan has 421 kills this season and 1,055 in her career. Gillian Parsons has 159 kills and freshman Kira Millard has 135.
Holy Redeemer freshman Elizabeth Bilbow has 676 assists, and combined with Griffin for 213 digs this season.
Millard had 10 kills and Bilbow had eight in the Royals’ 3-0 sweep of Western Wayne earlier this season.
Lake-Lehman’s Alexandra Patia has 117 kills and Giolla Biscotto has 303 assists. In a four-set win over Montrose, Abby Fugok had 33 digs, while Patia had nine kills and Biscotto had 25 assists.
Blue Ridge celebrated its quarterfinal win over Elk Lake with two players reaching milestones. Junior Abigail Gelinger reached 500 career kills and junior McKenna Zick reached 1,000 career assists.
Gelinger leads the Lady Raiders with 240 kills, with Lynndee Barbour adding 145 and Emily Gorham having 120 this season. Zick has 537 assists and Payton Perrington has 233 digs.
In Blue Ridge’s four-set win over Lake-Lehman in the regular season, Gelinger had 20 kills, Barbour had 12 and Zick had 40 assists.
District 2 volleyball semifinals
Class 3A at Berwick High School
3-Crestwood (17-2) vs. 2-Abington Heights (21-0), 5 p.m.
5-Dallas (17-4) at 1-Berwick (16-1), 30 minutes after the first match
Class 2A at Blue Ridge High School
6-Western Wayne (11-9) vs. 2-Holy Redeemer (18-3), 5 p.m.
4-Lake-Lehman (12-7) vs. 1-Blue Ridge (18-1), 30 minutes after the first match