NCAA women's volleyball tournament has plenty of WPIAL connections

Taylor Cigna has been here before. Sophia Spiridonakos thought this day never would come.

Cigna (Oakland Catholic) and Spiridonakos (Ambridge) will be leading their teams into the NCAA volleyball tournament this weekend, and they will be among a number of western Pennsylvania connections to the tourney.

Cigna, a junior libero at Colgate (24-5), will have a homecoming when the Raiders visit Pittsburgh to face seventh-ranked Pitt at 7 p.m. Friday at Petersen Events Center. This will be her first collegiate appearance in Pittsburgh.

“My dad’s whole side is from Pittsburgh, so a lot of them are checking their work schedules,” Cigna said. “A lot of my old club teammates and high school friends. My sister has texted a bunch of her friends. … I think we have a good fan base coming in.”

Cigna and the Raiders are making their second consecutive trip to the tournament after repeating as Patriot League champions. Cigna ranked fifth in the conference with 4.09 digs per set and made the conference all-tournament team.

Last season, Colgate ran into a buzzsaw in the first round, drawing eventual national champion Wisconsin. But Cigna said the team is ready for the challenge of facing Pitt, and last season’s experience should help.

“Honestly, just going for it,” she said about the team’s attitude. “We know how good we are, and we know it’s going to be a really good game. We believe in ourselves, and we’re just going to scout them like any other opponent we’re facing and just have a go-for-it mentality.”

Spiridonakos, a grad student senior outside hitter at Fairleigh Dickinson, had a much tougher road to the tournament.

She has experienced four coaching changes, including last season, when the sudden resignation of the coach led Karl France to step in while simultaneously trying to build the FDU men’s program from scratch. The Knights won only 18 matches during her first four seasons.

But this season, FDU went 17-15 and knocked off No. 2 seed St. Francis (Pa.) and top seed Sacred Heart in the Northeast Conference tournament to qualify. Spiridonakos contributed seven kills, two aces, five digs and four block assists in the NEC title match.

“I came in my freshman year, and we won two matches the entire season … to going and winning the championship, it’s just a big difference, and it means a lot,” she said. “To finally have the final whistle go (in the NEC final), it kind of all hit me at once that we were finally able to do it and what we had worked for — and what I had worked for — so long finally came to fruition.”

The Knights face a herculean task. They are in Austin, Texas, to face the top-ranked Longhorns (22-1) on Thursday.

But regardless of the outcome, Spiridonakos can hang up her sneakers at the end of the season knowing she helped FDU reach territory previously believed to be only a pipe dream.

“Definitely play like we have nothing to lose is a big thing, kind of just playing free,” she said. “They may be bigger, stronger, they’re ranked higher, but, at the end of the day, they’re still college athletes, and I think we can compete.

“I would hope that my legacy would be that I had been more like kind of a rock for the program. Been through a lot of coaches, staff, player transfers in general, and, obviously, I’ve always been here just trying to build a new culture. I want them to maintain the family culture that we have built and maintain the winning mindset that just because it’s a small school in New Jersey doesn’t mean we can’t do big things.”

Some other WPIAL/Pennsylvania tidbits from the upcoming NCAA Tournament:

• Pitt (27-3) continues to burnish its resume as one of the top programs in the nation. The Panthers, who have back-to-back Elite Eight appearances, including their first Final Four last season, earned a share of their fourth ACC title in the past six seasons and are in the tournament for the seventh straight year, earning a No. 2 seed in their quadrant of the bracket.

The Panthers are led by a trio of first-team All-ACC performers: fifth-year outside hitter Courtney Buzzerio, who transferred from Iowa; fifth-year middle blocker Serena Gray; and redshirt junior outside hitter Valeria Vazquez Gomez.

James Madison and BYU also will play in Pittsburgh this weekend.

A stiff challenge potentially looms for Pitt: To get back to the Final Four, they likely will have to go through defending national champion Wisconsin, which got the top seed in Pitt’s quadrant of the bracket.

• Towson coach Don Metil, a Latrobe native, can boast of a distinction only two other teams can claim this season: a win over No. 6 Pitt. The other two teams to do it? San Diego and Louisville, and they are ranked Nos. 3 and 4 in the nation.

Towson’s win over the Panthers on Sept. 10 in Pittsburgh gave the Tigers (29-1) their first win over a ranked team and made Metil the winningest coach in program history. It was his 202nd win at Towson, and he heads into the tournament with 221 wins in 10 seasons at Towson.

Metil and the Tigers are in the NCAAs for the fourth straight year after winning their fourth Colonial Athletic Association title in a row. They will travel to Austin, Texas, to face Georgia. A win could set up a round-of-32 match with top overall seed and site host Texas.

“This year has definitely answered that question I have talked about in the past, and that is: Have we done all that we can do (with this program)?” Metil said. “Obviously, this year, I think, has proved there can still be more obtained at Towson.”

Towson’s only loss this season was a CAA match Oct. 15 at Elon.

• Speaking of Georgia, Elizabeth Forward grad Kaitlin Fournier is on the Bulldogs’ roster. A redshirt freshman middle blocker, Fournier appeared in two matches this season.

• North Allegheny grad Paige Morningstar already has been to one Final Four with Louisville. Though she redshirted last season, she was in Columbus, Ohio, with the team as it made its first national semifinal appearance.

The Cardinals will start their journey to another as the No. 2 overall seed in the tournament. Louisville (26-2), which shared the ACC title with Pitt, will host Southern Conference champion Samford (19-12) on Friday.

Morningstar appeared in 10 matches this season.

• Ohio State sophomore setter Sarah White (Seneca Valley) played in two sets this season. The Buckeyes (19-9) host Ohio Valley Conference champ Tennessee State (19-15) on Friday.

• Avonworth grad Emily Ferketic, a 6-foot-2 senior outside hitter, played in all 25 matches for UMBC (17-8) and will lead the America East champions into Happy Valley to face 11th-ranked Penn State on Friday at 7:30 p.m..

Ferketic has 87 kills, 68 total blocks and nine aces this season.

• Penn State (24-7), meanwhile, is making its first trip to the NCAA Tournament without legendary coach Russ Rose on the bench.

But Katie Schumacher-Cawley, in her first season as head coach, has the team back in its customary spot. She played under Rose when the Nittany Lions won their first national title in 1999. It was the first of seven titles under Rose.

No. 21 UCF and Yale will meet in Friday’s other match in State College (5 p.m.). Yale, incidentally, is coached by Erin Appleman, who was an assistant coach on Penn State’s 1999 national title team.