Volleyball:
The Port Allegany volleyball team picked up a pair of victories last week, beating Cameron County for the second time before setting down Smethport to run its winning streak to four matches before Tuesday night’s straight-set loss to unbeaten Oswayo Valley.
Jenny Shelley led the way in the Lady Gators’ 25-18, 25-11, 16-25, 25-11 win at Emporium, filling up the stat sheet with 15 service points, 11 kills, 15 assists, and 8 digs. Kyley Mickle (3 kills, 16 assists), Renee Edgell (5 service points, 6 kills, 11 digs), Rachel Taylor (5 service points, 15 kills, 3 blocks), Becky Andrus (12 service points, 3 kills, 38 digs) and Nikki Andrus (14 service points, 2 kills, 7 digs) also contributed to the win over the Red Raiders.
On Thursday, Port High (7-4, 6-4 NTL) swept Smethport 25-22, 25-19, 25-19 to avenge an earlier loss to the Hubs. Renee Edgell’s 11 kills and 11 digs powered the Port offense, with
Shelley (12 assists, 5 kills, 16 digs), Mickle (7 assists, 4 kills, 11 digs), Andrus (34 digs), and Kris-Ann Raymo (2 kills, 12 digs) also contributing to the cause.
“This was a long-awaited performance,” coach Sharon Daniels said following the win over the Hubbers. “The team had not played consistently well since our loss to Smethport. Every player brought their ‘A’ game. Offense and defense were sound.”
Thursday’s match at Otto-Eldred will have a different look; instead of Gator orange and black or Terror blue and gold, both teams and many of the spectators will be wearing pink. Nationwide, more than 1,000 college and high school volleyball teams are scheduled to participate in Dig Pink® events this year as part of the Side-Out Foundation’s campaign of furthering breast cancer awareness, education and patient services. The O-E Music Boosters are sponsoring a Soup’s On dinner beginning at 5 p.m. in the high school cafeteria; the junior varsity match is slated for a 6 p.m. start, with the varsity to follow.
The regular season concludes next week with Tuesday’s match against visiting Coudersport – when Nikki Andrus, Renee Edgell, Kyley Mickle, and Ashley Bernardi will be honored on Senior Night – and a trip to Northern Potter on Thursday, Oct. 28.
For more information on Dig Pink®: http://www.side-out.org
Boys soccer:
As the clock ticks toward November, the Port Allegany boys soccer team is fine-tuning its game for the District 9 playoffs. With Wednesday’s trip to Brockway the only regular-season contest remaining, the Gators’ win streak stands at four games after sandwiching road wins at Archbishop Walsh and DuBois Central around Saturday morning’s Senior Day shutout over Johnsonburg.
“We’re building up the style of play that we want and doing things the way we’ve been wanting to do it all season long,” coach Aaron Clark said.
Tyler Kittilson led the scoring barrage in Olean on Thursday, netting three goals in a 7-1 win over the Eagles. Sam Shaffer celebrated his final home game by matching the feat against the Rams, with fellow senior Tyler Smith making four saves to pick up the win. Ben Edgell was back in net against DuBois, stopping four shots to record his second shutout win in the last week, while Scott Brookens scored both goals for the Gators on assists from Ben Osani, Sam Kysor, and Ken Kysor.
The DuBois victory assured Port High (8-7-2) of finishing at least .500, with playoff seeding announced next week.
Girls soccer:
This season has been a challenging one for the Port Allegany girls soccer program, with youth and inexperience contributing to several close losses as the team struggled with learning how to win.
On Friday afternoon, those learning experiences finally paid off as Fernanda Spallanzani scored the game’s only goal to boost the Lady Gators to their first victory of the season, a 1-0 final over DuBois Central Catholic.
“It was about heart. They were motivated,” coach Travis Cowburn said.
Spallanzani, an exchange student from Argentina, also netted Port’s lone goal in Saturday morning’s 6-1 loss at Genesee Valley.
“She was a blessing, to come in here and liven things up a little bit,” Cowburn said.
The physical matchup against the New York team, part of a four-games-in-five-days stretch, helped wear down the Gator squad in the season’s final two games, a 6-1 loss in Monday’s rematch at DCC and a 4-0 shutout by Elk Catholic the following night. Port finishes the season with a 1-14 record and a “wait until next year” attitude.
“I can’t repeat inexperience enough times to describe us,” Cowburn said, “and it was a constant battle to keep them motivated.”
The Gators will lose five seniors from this year’s team, including returning UAVSL All-Star Bryanna Evens, but goalkeeper Jordan Edgell leads a large group of returning starters which should be bolstered by some promising freshman talent.
“Next year is a new year,” assistant coach Tony Edgell said stoically. “We will miss the seniors from this year, but we’ll be pretty good next year.”
Cross country:
North Tier League Meet: Oswayo Valley 23, Northern Potter 40, Smethport 80, Port Allegany 100
As he has been for most of the season, Jacob Stehle was the first Gator runner to cross the finish line at Tuesday’s North Tier League meet at Oswayo Valley, finishing the 5-kilometer course in 19:57.27 to place 16th out of 40 runners. Northern Potter’s Steven Kibbe won the event with a time of 17:27.17, but OV runners Spencer Cole, Trevor Howard, and Barrett Kemp finished 2-3-4 to claim the NTL title.
Jameson Haskins (22:06.90, 26th place), Dallas Taylor (23:05.06, 29th), Jacob Undercofler (23:11.36, 31st), Logan Hutton (23:44.64, 32nd), Lucas Manning (25:13.22, 36th), and Bryan Pritt (25.17.23, 37th) also completed the varsity race for Port. The lone Gator girl, Jackie Lewis, finished 20th in 24:56.59. Adam Koehler won the junior high race in 11:06.30.
The season will conclude for most area runners at the District 9 Championships, slated for Oct. 30 in Ridgway.
Port Sports 