Michael Love stories, Page 30
Close battles, big wins reflected in movement within WPIAL boys volleyball coaches polls
It was a busy week in WPIAL boys volleyball as teams in both Class 3A and Class 2A had strong showings and made their move in the rankings as the Western Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association released its latest top-10 polls Monday morning. Shaler stayed on top in Class 3A with...
Gateway grad Emma Kennedy hits strong stretch for Slippery Rock softball
Gateway graduate Emma Kennedy hopes a recent hitting streak for the Slippery Rock softball team is the genesis of good things for the junior starting catcher. She collected at least one hit in each of four games — five total out of 11 at-bats — as The Rock went 3-1...
Gateway track and field athletes gear up for competition
The first couple of weeks of preseason practices for WPIAL sports teams contained several sunny days with temperatures reaching into the 60s with a couple getting near 70. But over the past week or so, Mother Nature hasn’t been kind, with temperatures dropping into the 40s for highs with rain...
Led by sprinter Gabrielle Layne, Plum athletes embark on 2024 track and field season
Gabrielle Layne capped her 2023 outdoor track season with some major accomplishments. She found herself on the medals podium twice at the WPIAL Class 3A championships at Slippery Rock with a fifth-place finish in the 100-meter dash and an eighth-pace finish in the 200 dash. She also punched her ticket...
A-K Valley shooters on target at Cager Classic skills competition
The top senior talent in the Alle-Kiski Valley and surrounding communities gathered Friday at Highlands to match shooting skills in a competition to kick off the two-day Cager Classic all-star celebration. For Kalleigh Nerone, a Bloomsburg commit and a member of the West girls representing Highlands with teammates Shelby Wojcik,...
Basketball foes become teammates at Cager Classic
The Highlands and Hampton boys basketball teams played nine times over the past four seasons, including a third time last year in the quarterfinals of the WPIAL Class 4A playoffs. Bradyn Foster, the Golden Rams’ 6-foot-8 senior center, knows all about what it was like in those bruising battles with...
Young Plum softball team showing signs of potential with impressive wins
The Plum softball team rallied from the first inning on during last Friday’s nonsection home game against Highlands at Plum High School The Golden Rams led 2-0 after one inning, 4-1 in the third and 6-2 in the fourth. Despite some adversity, which included an uncharacteristic six errors, the Mustangs...
A-K Valley campus clippings: Highlands grad Haidze on tear for IUP softball
Highlands graduate Jaycee Haidze is having a strong early season for the IUP softball team. The sophomore right-handed pitcher and infielder earned PSAC Western Division Athlete of the Week for softball after hitting .524 (11 of 21) in seven games last week. She totaled four doubles, two home runs and...
Delmont, New Kensington rinks to host national youth hockey tournaments
Last year, the Allegheny Badgers Tier II 16U boys ice hockey team won the Mid-Am District title, advanced to nationals in Amherst, N.Y., and brought home third place in the 3A bracket. Seventeen of the 20 players from that team remained together and moved up to the 18U level. The...
Mars, Shaler maintain top spots in latest WPIAL boys volleyball coaches rankings
A couple of teams in Class 3A changed positions as the Western Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association released its Week 3 Top-10 polls and Players of the Week on Monday morning. Shaler remained in the top spot, followed by North Allegheny, Seneca Valley, Norwin and Penn-Trafford rounding out the top five....
Gateway boys tennis sets course on WPIAL title defense
Six of seven starters returned from last year’s Gateway boys tennis team which captured the program’s first WPIAL title since 1988 and made it all the way to the PIAA Class 3A semifinals. Team members also fared well at the WPIAL and state singles tournaments. Despite all of the laurels...
Gateway swimmers pleased with performance at state championships
The final Gateway swim in the final event of the final day of the PIAA swimming championships at Bucknell University resulted in a podium finish and a state medal. The Gator girls 400-yard freestyle relay of freshman Aliya Rassiane, senior Mallory Brown, sophomore Gianna Laurenti and senior McKenna Brown swam...
St. Joseph’s Julie Spinelli headlines Valley News Dispatch girls basketball all-stars
Player of the Year Julie Spinelli 5-11, Sr., G, St. Joseph The St. Joseph girls basketball team took several steps forward in the 2023-24 season and met or surpassed goals and expectations set for themselves at the start in late November. Two of the goals were met on a single...
Riverview baseball leans on experienced lineup, starts 3-0
Riverview senior pitcher and infielder Jack Loughren is an island unto himself in that he’s the only senior on a youthful Raiders baseball team. The team’s senior day ceremony will be brief. But Loughren is not alone in terms of players in the lineup who have varsity experience. Eight seniors...
After impressive postseason, Plum bowlers head to national championships
Plum was the only WPIBL program to have both its boys and girls bowling teams qualify for the Pennsylvania state championships. The Mustangs’ representation at Leisure Lanes in Lancaster on March 16 was the destination of a journey that took the squads through the WPIBL and Western Regional tournaments. But...
Again searching for new boys basketball coach, Plum seeks stability, return to prominence
For the second time in less than two years, Plum is looking for a new boys basketball coach. Justin Walther tendered his resignation last month, and it was accepted by the district. Athletic director Drew Karpen said Wednesday that in a short time after the position was advertised, there were...
Freeport pitcher Sydney Selker healthy, aims to make final season memorable
Sydney Selker wasn’t accustomed to sitting out a softball game, no matter at what level. But that is where the Akron commit found herself for the last eight games of Freeport’s 2023 season. A concussion suffered against Knoch in a defensive collision with a teammate in the 10th game last...
Plum softball team bounces back from opening loss to blank Derry
The Plum softball team’s season debut against Ligonier Valley on Friday was, in the eyes of the coaches and players, not their best outing. But the Mustangs shook off the loss and rebounded in all three phases Monday at home against Derry. The Plum offense collected eight hits, and the...
After busy tournament weekend, Shaler, Mars remain atop coaches’ volleyball polls
Shaler captured the Meadville Tournament championship Saturday, and the victory strengthened the Titans’ hold on the No. 1 spot in the latest Western Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association Class 3A poll released Monday morning. North Allegheny battled state power Central York in the semifinals finals of Saturday’s North Allegheny Tournament. Despite...
Competition fuels Forest Hills resident Sarah Mitchell as part of Steel City Surge women’s semi-pro volleyball
Lee Yong Ok rose to the top of her chosen sport in her native South Korea. She worked her way up the ranks in women’s volleyball, and her work paid off to where she was selected to play in and represent her country for the 1988 Olympic Summer Games in...
WPIAL swimmers claim 6 more golds to wrap up successful PIAA Class 2A meet
WPIAL swimmers brought home six more PIAA Class 2A state championships Saturday evening to cap a highly successful two-day meet at Bucknell University. North Catholic junior Luke Lamb won his second individual crown in as many days with a victory in the boys 100-yard backstroke, while Mt. Pleasant junior Joseph...
Knoch’s Giona Lavorini wins duel for gold at PIAA Class 2A swim meet
Knoch junior Giona Lavorini bested rival Peyton Scott, a junior from Indiana, for the WPIAL Class 2A title March 1 at Pitt’s Trees Pool. Scott then got the better of Lavorini at a YMCA district meet last weekend. But Lavorini was back on top Saturday evening in the finals of...
Mt. Pleasant girls repeat as PIAA Class 2A team swimming champions
The Mt. Pleasant girls 400-yard freestyle relay of Lainey Brown, Maddie Barrick, Riley Shinsky and Lily King took fifth (3 minutes, 36.90 seconds) in the championship heat Friday night at Kinney Natatorium at Bucknell University. The 28 points the relay earned capped another strong day for the Lady Vikings and...
Hampton’s Gabby Elk takes 2nd at PIAA Class 2A diving championships
LEWISBURG — Hampton sophomore Gabby Elk sat in fifth place after the second round of dives Saturday afternoon at the PIAA Class 2A championships at Bucknell University’s Kinney Natatorium. But she made a final push over the final three dives, scoring 121.40 points to move to second in the final...
5 WPIAL swimmers, 2 relays to go for PIAA Class 2A gold as top seeds after Day 2 prelims
LEWISBURG — Day 2 of the PIAA Class 2A swimming championship Saturday morning at Bucknell University brought more fast times from WPIAL swimmers, and they will be well-featured in this evening’s championship heats in the 100-yard freestyle, 500 free, 100 backstroke, 100 breaststroke and 400 free relay. Girls Mt. Pleasant...
