GIRLS VOLLEYBALL: Spring-Ford completes perfect season, tops Pine-Richland for 1st PIAA-4A championship

MECHANICSBURG – Pine-Richland rallied late to edge the Spring-Ford girls volleyball team in the first set of the PIAA Class 4A final Saturday night.

Lila Olsen, however, was not too worried.

On the same court in the same match last season, the senior has been through the same thing – albeit from the opposite side.

“We won the first set, they came back, sweeped us last three,” said Olson of Spring-Ford’s loss to North Allegheny in the 2024 state final. “So as soon as we lost the first set I was like ‘Guys, maybe this is it, this is what they did to us last year. This is exactly what we’re going to do right back to them.’

“So I never really was let down or nervous that we were going to lose, I knew we had it in us to win so that’s what we did.”

Olsen back up that confidence with a brilliant offensive performance, helping Spring-Ford roll in the second set, edge Pine-Richland down the stretch in the third then pull away in the fourth as Spring-Ford completed a perfect season and won its first-ever PIAA title with a 3-1 (26-28, 25-10, 25-21, 25-14) victory at Cumberland Valley High School.

“At the beginning of the year I remember sitting in the cafeteria while we were making our goals and I was thinking, is this like even possible,” Olsen said. “Like I knew, I had something in me that knew we were going to win it all but it’s crazy actually being in that position and if we were going to do it, we were going to do it with this group of people so I’m grateful to even be in this position.”

Olsen recorded an astounding 35 kills while also collecting five blocks, two digs an ace and assist as Spring-Ford finished 30-0, the Rams checking state gold off an impressive list of firsts they accomplished this season including winning the Pioneer Athletic Conference and District 1 titles.

“It was amazing – we’re PAC champs, we’re district champs, we’re state champs,” Olsen said.  “We followed in (Pope John Paul II’s) footsteps but beat them too. There’s literally nothing that stopped us this whole season so it feels absolutely phenomenal.”

In the match before Spring-Ford won its state title, PJP II claimed its fourth consecutive PIAA-3A championship. The Golden Panthers’ only three losses in 2025 came to Spring-Ford, twice in the regular season then in the PAC championship match.

“It feels amazing honestly, we worked really hard this whole season,” Spring-Ford senior libero Alanna Bricker said. “And we came into being 29-0 so I feel like we all had a lot of confidence coming into this but we also had a lot of nerves, because we wanted to win this, cause this is the first time in Spring-Ford history that this has ever happened. And it was the first time in Spring-Ford history that we won districts and PACs so we really wanted to go out with a bang.

“And I just love all the girls that I play with and I’m really going to miss them since I’m a senior and it’s my last year.”

The No. 2 seed in the District 1-4A tournament, Spring-Ford did not drop a set in that tournament’s four matches, beating top-seeded Unionville in the title match.

In states, the Rams bested Upper Dublin in four, swept Emmaus in the quarterfinals then beat Bishop Shanahan in four to return to Cumberland Valley, where it had lost in four sets to North Allegheny in the 2024 PIAA final.

“I don’t think anybody would have thought that we’d be undefeated,” Spring-Ford coach George Fuller said. “We set our goals out, initially the team started talking when we said our goal at the beginning of the season – North Allegheny, North Allegheny, North Allegheny. And I said let’s kind of dial that back. I’m like there’s building blocks to get there and I said North Allegheny’s not on our schedule, I said so what if we don’t play ‘em, right?

“So I said let’s kind of dial this back and we started talking. It’s like, look, we’ve never won the PAC championship, never won districts, right.”

Elle Sossong finished with 18 kills, seven digs and two aces while Bricker had 19 digs, two assists and an ace. Lola DiRico made 13 digs and collected an ace, Morgan Pupek contributed four blocks and a kill while Lily Ewalt had two kills, an assist and a dig.

Marley Angelucci recorded 52 assists to go along with four digs, two kills and two aces, the junior senior sending passes to the left side for Olsen to connect on shot after shot that eventually wore down Pine-Richland.

“There was a point in that fourth set where I looked, I think it was 19-10 or something, and I looked at my assistants and I’m like ‘I think they’ve given up,’” Fuller said. “There was one, Olsen had a shot that tagged the shoulder of that setter in the back row and she kind of laid into the right side who missed the block assignment. So you could tell there was still fire in their belly but they knew that the hill was big to climb at that point.”

Pine-Richland built a 16-11 lead in the opening set before Spring-Ford rallied back, the District 1 Rams taking a 21-19 lead after a 5-0 run. Down 23-20, Pine-Richland took the next three to pull even. Spring-Ford went up 24-23 but Pine-Richland fought off that set point then two more to tie things at 26 before eventually winning 28-26 when senior Isabelle Hoppe, a Pitt commit, dropped in a shot.

“I think they’re a really good team and we came into the game a little tense just because of nerves and stuff,” Bricker said. “And we really wanted to win but I think, like I said, being tense, it really kind of made us not play our best game but at the end of the day we locked in and we were playing well.”

In the second set, Spring-Ford never trailed after a five-point burst capped by a DiRico ace put it ahead 11-6. Pine-Richland could only get within three at 11-8, Spring-Ford pushing the margin to double digits for the first time at 19-9 and cruising to a 25-10 win to even the match 1-1.

Spring-Ford had a 14-10 edge in the third set before Pine-Richland took five of the next six to knot things at 15. Tied at 19, Spring-Ford won the next two points and after Pine-Richland close to within 21-20 Olsen posted consecutive kills to push the margin to three. Spring-Ford went up 24-20 then held on for a 25-21 victory.

“I honestly wasn’t even looking at the score but I think we were just making some dumb mistakes that they were taking advantage of so I think that’s the reason why it was close,” Olsen said. “But I never really felt like a weight on my back of being worried to lose.”

Spring-Ford never trailed in the fourth set after grabbing its first three points. A 4-0 run put Spring-Ford up 10-5 with a five-point burst increasing the lead to 18-8. From there, Pine-Richland could only get as close as nine as Spring-Ford secured its first state title with a 25-14 win.