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The Canton Warriors and North Penn-Liberty Mounties successfully defended their Class A and AA District IV Volleyball championships at Williamson High School on Tuesday, November 1.

In the Class A championship game between Canton and Cowanesque Valley, the Lady Indians built a 20-10 lead. After a Canton timeout the Lady Warriors went on a 12-1 run to take a 22-21 lead. Both teams later tied the set back up at 23-23. CV then scored twice to take the win, 25-23.

“We played with a lot of nerves in the first game,” Canton head coach Sheila Wesneski said. “Once they started talking to themselves we made that really nice run to catch up (because it was 19-10 at one time). They started playing as a team and that carried over to the next game.”

From that point on the Lady Warriors were in control the rest of the match. In the second set they jumped out to 7-1 lead then later ran out to a 17-5 lead before CV burned their second timeout. Canton then outscored CV 8-5 down the stretch to win 25-10.

The third set started out the same as the second. This time Canton built a 13-3 lead before CV started to rally. CV cut Canton’s lead to 15-11, but that was as close as they got as the Lady Warriors won 25-17. In the fourth set CV kept the score close early but Canton would pull away for a 25-15 win, giving them the match, 3-1.

Jillian Shay had 16 points and 8 digs for Canton, Caitlyn Pepper had 13 points and 31 assists, and Samantha Proseus had 14 kills.

Karmen Short had 14 points and 11 digs to lead the Lady Indians. Makayla Vargeson had 7 kills and Kailey Wells had 13 assists.

“We’re going to soak in this win and let them enjoy it,” continued Wesneski. “It feels great. I’ve been telling them all along that they can go back and that it was a matter of playing as a team and executing what they needed to do to get there. We’ll start preparing when we find out who we play.”

In the Class AA game, a rematch of the 2017 championship game, the Lady Mounties defeated Wellsboro for the third time this season to win their third straight crown.

Wellsboro kept it close early on in the first set but after a 3-3 tie the Lady Mounties built a 10-5 lead before Wellsboro called their first timeout. The Lady Hornets managed to cut into Liberty’s lead as they trailed 14-11, but the Lady Mounties went on an 11-3 run to close out the set, 25-14.

In the second set the Lady Hornets jumped out to a 2-0 lead before Liberty built a 7-3 lead. Wellsboro rallied and got the score within a point at 9-8, but again, that was as close as Liberty let them get. The Lady Mounties built a 19-11 lead and then closed out the set 25-19.

The third set was all North Penn-Liberty. After an early 1-1 tie they went on a 16-4 run to build a 17-5 lead. After Wellsboro got one point back the Lady Mounties closed out the game on 8 straight points.

“I kind of gave the girls the same message that I did the other night,” Mountie coach Holli Smith said. “I told them to play every game as if it’s your last and we watched a motivational video before we came out and I think it really pumped the girls up. I can’t describe it. It’s phenomenal, it’s elating, the girls are just a wonderful team. They all work together so hard and they have heart. You can’t coach heart and this team has heart.”

Maddison Minyo led Liberty with 14 points and 8 kills, Brooke Harvey finished with 10 digs and 6 kills, JoAnne McNamara scored 11 points, and Charisma Grega finished with 8 kills.

Caitlyn Callahan had 8 kills for Wellsboro, Ryann Adams finished with 20 digs, giving her 500 for her career, and Heidi Zuchowski scored 6 points.

Both teams will be back in action on Tuesday, November 6 in the first round of the PIAA Championships. Canton will take on the District III champion while North Penn-Liberty will take on the District II champion. Both games will be at a site and time to be determined.