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Alison Francis fuels Dallas to girls soccer victory over Hazleton Area

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GFWC-West Side fills purses for needy women

HANOVER TWP. &#8212; Put a target on the other side of the floor and Mia Zagami would have hit the same spot each time.With her underhand serve, the Hanover Area senior was nearly unstoppable in the fifth set Monday.Serving to the back line on the Meyers&#8217; side of the floor, Zagami led a five-point swing to break the set open as Hanover picked up its sixth win, 3-2, over Meyers in Wyoming Valley Conference girls&#8217; volleyball play.Set scores were 25-22, 21-25, 25-19, 18-25 and 15-9. With the victory, the Hawkeyes (6-3) remain the third seed in the District 2 Class 2A playoff picture behind state-ranked Holy Redeemer and Dunmore.&#8220;This match could have went either way. I&#8217;m so proud of the girls to pull this one out,&#8221; Hanover Area head coach Bill Kane said. &#8220;I thought this team could be something special. I told the girls to look forward and see it. We want them to have that vision. I think there are still some wins out there for us. Again, it&#8217;s about how we are building and growing as a unit over time. Teamwork. You can see it with this team.&#8221;Really, Zagami and classmate Paige Jaslar stepped up when Hanover needed them the most.Zagami kept hitting about six inches in front of that back line, forcing Meyers to play the pass forward to the front row. And Jaslar was the benefactor of some nice Hawkeye defense.The back-row pass was nearly perfect to setter McKenna Reedy (40 assists, 1 kill, 11 service points). And she floated a nice assist up to Jaslar, who went cross-court, tucking the ball into the back corner.Jaslar recorded four kills in that six-point run that broke open a 8-8 set and gave the Hawkeyes a 14-8 advantage. She finished the night with 6 kills, 4 aces, 15 service points.Hanover closed the match two points later on a middle spike by Katilin Bradford, one of 13 for her on the night.&#8220;There was a lot of pressure,&#8221; Zagami said. &#8220;Just to be able to serve and put the ball where you want it every time, it&#8217;s a great feeling. This is the most wins we&#8217;ve had in a while as a team. I&#8217;m so excited to have success with these ladies. We&#8217;ve been working so hard for a while now.&#8221;The five back-and-forth sets in a match spanned nearly 2 hours, 15 minutes.Long runs. Rallies that went 12 to 15 hits. Just one team waiting for a small, mental slip to capitalize on.Just look at the fifth set.Meyers got big spikes from Chloe Delp (9 kills) and Da&#8217;Nayia Ballard (13 kills) to grab an early, 6-4 lead.Hanover rallied back. A back-row free-ball kill by libero Julie Fischer and a 4-0 run on Sarah Karpowich&#8217;s serve put the Hawkeyes back in front, 8-6.Back again came the Mohawks as two Erza Perez (24 assists) aces knotted the score at 8. But that&#8217;s the last time it was tied, thanks to the 6-0 Hanover run.&#8220;We played our hearts out, and that&#8217;s all I can ask of them,&#8221; Meyers head coach Mary Mushock said. &#8220;We are a very inconsistent team at times, and we are working on that. We brought the effort tonight, but we fell just a little bit short. Right now, we are only really playing two seniors. I think that we have a really bright future.&#8221;Berwick 3, Tunkhannock 0Berwick improved to 8-2 after topping Tunkhannock 25-14, 25-11, 25-18.Madelyn Pinterich led the way with 13 service points, eight digs, while Katie Evans had 11 service points and 16 digs. Nicole Sarge made three blocks in the win.Nanticoke 3, MMI Prep 0Jenna Lipowski&#8217;s 26 assists, four aces, three service points, one block and one dig fueled the Trojans&#8217; 25-11, 25-10, 25-17 win over MMI Prep.Kasey Radginski had nine kills and one block, Alyssa Lewis finished with two aces, eight kills, one block and one dig and Jilann Baron recorded six kills for Nanticoke.Dana Caratto had 10 kills and five digs for MMI Prep, Elise Hreha served 22 points and nine aces and Lauryn Banyas finished with nine assists.North Pocono 3, Pittston Area 0Heather Kramer made 15 digs and served up seven aces among her 18 points as the Trojans took a 25-21, 25-17, 25-23 victory.Emma Coles had 12 service points for Pittston Area, while Kirsten Durling finished with eight kills and 13 assist and Portia Weidlick had six kills and six service points.<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Tom FoxFor Times Leader</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Times Leader sports at 570-829-7143 or on Twitter @tlsports.</shirttailMeta></div>

WVC Girls Volleyball: Hanover holds on for five-set victory over Meyers