The absurdity of national high school volleyball rankings notwithstanding, the expectations were high for Central this season. But after a 24-26, 25-22, 25-23 loss to Penn Hills (the third place team from District 7), the Panthers are on the brink of elimination from the PIAA Class AAA tournament.
Next up for Central is Cumberland Valley at 1:50 this afternoon. CV took down Central in the District 3 semifinals last week and went on to win the District title. If the Panthers lose to CV again and Penn Hills beats District 11's Emmaus, Central's season is over.
"I really thought the turning point of the entire match was the beginning of the second game when we just allowed them to run out to a big lead," Central coach Brad Livingston said. "Obviously they got a lot of confidence at that point and our confidence level went down and we were kind of fighting an uphill battle the whole rest of the match. We just didn't execute well enough at the end."
With one loss in the pool, Central no longer controls its own destiny in terms of a semifinal berth. The Panthers could finish 2-1, but if Penn Hills and Conestoga Valley have identical records and Central has won less total games, they would be eliminated.
Despite the recent struggles after an incredibly successful regular season, Livingston said there isn't much of a difference between the way the Panthers are playing now and the way they were playing a few weeks ago.
"When I look at how we're playing now I don't know that it's all that different from the way we played all season," Livingston said. "I really don't think there's that big of a difference -- we are who we are and we come to play and it wasn't enough this morning in the first match."
The key in the rematch against CV? Livingston said it's just a matter of playing better all around.
"We let it get away in Game 5 of the first match and let them take it from us at the end," Livingston said. "So I expect that it's going to be a real tough, tight match. The good news is we just played them recently, so we shouldn't have any doubts about what they are going to do and they aren't going to have any doubts about what we're going to do. It's going to come down to whoever plays best."
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