Published: November 11, 2009 09:39 am      

Northern Cambria advances to quarters

EBENSBURG — When the Colts battle on the volleyball court, the Northern Cambria community follows them down the road.

That occurs for a number of reasons, such as the successful tradition that coach Mike Hogan has built with the Colts. In addition, the Colts’ followers are excited by their undefeated record and a No. 1 ranking among Class A schools in the state by the Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association.

The 2009 squad would love to emulate the Colts’ 2005 performance and return to Northern Cambria this weekend with the PIAA gold. The Colts earned the state silver in 2004 and 2006, and they have captured six consecutive District 6-A championships.

Northern Cambria advanced to the state quarterfinals Tuesday night at Central Cambria High School, winning their 22nd consecutive match by dispatching Jefferson-Morgan in three games: 25-18, 25-12 and 25-17.

Hogan is pleased with his squad’s performance this year as they continue to build upon that NC legacy.

“Tradition is the key. We’ve been there, we know what it takes, and we know how you have to perform,” Hogan said after the match. “We know that you can’t get caught up in ‘What are we going to do tomorrow?’ We have to focus on the present, deal with what we have to today and deal with what is coming up. Tradition helps a tremendous amount.”

Despite that ranking, the Rockets, the third-place team in District 7, demonstrated at the outset of the match that they were not intimidated by that Northern Cambria legacy or state ranking.

Jefferson-Morgan charged out to a 6-0 lead, stunning the large Northern Cambria contingent – led by an excited and vociferous student body

– and silencing them for a short time.

The Rockets built that lead with a strong game at the net, taking advantage of two monster kills by 5-foot,

11-inch senior middle hitter Mabel Culp to build that lead.

“We said that if we made it easy for them to contact the ball, they have some good hitters and they’re going to bring some heat at you,” Hogan said about the start.

“They were prepared and came out, and I think that it kind of woke us up a little bit. We’re in a ball game now, and we have to forget the hype and go out and play. Once we got rolling and got a couple of key plays on our side of the net, things went pretty well for us.”

Down 6-0, the Colts reeled off seven consecutive points off the service of Ariel Rocco to stem the Rockets’ momentum and assert control of the game.

The score was tied four times after that until Northern Cambria outscored its District 7 opponent 8-1 down the stretch to earn a 25-18 victory.

Jefferson-Morgan coach Ron Headlee was pleased with his team’s start, although disappointed that they could not sustain it.

“We gave all those points that we earned right back to them, so that part hurt a little bit,” Headlee said.

“We kept playing basically in their home gym here with the home crowd here. I thought that our girls responded real well for being here in the state playoffs for the first time.”

Hogan has a veteran squad with four seniors on his starting lineup: Brianna Kochinsky, Ariel and Jess Rocco, and Janae Dunchak. The group has worked hard to return to the state competition.

“Last year, we were confident, but we were not as much leaders as we are this year since we’re all seniors,” Kochinsky said. “We wanted it so bad because this is our senior year.”

The Colts advance to the state quarterfinals Friday at Central York High School.