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<p>MECHANICSBURG &#8212; Holy Redeemer and Bald Eagle Area spent much of Saturday&#8217;s Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class 2A girls volleyball championship match tied or in one-point battles, struggling for control of the moment.</p><p>Each time the teams arrived at the end of a set, however, it was the Eagles who assumed command.</p><p>Bald Eagle Area&#8217;s ability to close out tight sets led to the unbeaten Eagles claiming their first state title with a 25-19, 25-23, 25-23 sweep at Cumberland Valley High School.</p><p>&#8220;The mental toughness of our team is a big thing,&#8221; Eagles coach Larry Campbell said. &#8220;We went 66-3 in sets this year and there were a lot of those 25-23 sets that we won.&#8221;</p><p>The teams were tied 21 times and traded the lead 18 more times.</p><p>The bulk of those came in the third set.</p><p>With Bald Eagle Area trying to lock down a championship and Holy Redeemer scrapping to try to extend the match, they found themselves tied 16 times &#8211; at 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21 and 22. They often put together points two at a time, leading to the 12 lead changes.</p><p>From the time Holy Redeemer stepped out of a timeout trailing 15-12 and came back to tie when Skylar Osenkarski pounded a kill through a block attempt, neither team led by more than two the rest of the way.</p><p>And, the points often were not settled quickly.</p><p>&#8220;There were so many long rallies where we would hit some really hard balls and they would just pick them up and get a nice swing off of it,&#8221; Holy Redeemer&#8217;s Sarah Liskowicz said.</p><p>The state championship winning point finally came when Mountain League Most Valuable Player Madison Rockey got over the top to send down the winner on a point that had already been extended twice by blocks from Holy Redeemer&#8217;s Liv Moore.</p><p>Rockey, a versatile, 5-foot-11 junior setter, finished the match with 31 assists, 12 digs, four kills, two blocks and an ace.</p><p>&#8220;Their setter was good,&#8221; Liskowicz said. &#8220;She did a really good job of disguising where she was going and mixing up who she was setting to.&#8221;</p><p>Grace Hugar helped fight past a determined Holy Redeemer team in the third set, powerfully putting away Rockey sets from her favorite spot on the outside left. Hugar finished with 15 kills.</p><p>Lexi Barnhart had seven kills and 10 digs for the District 6 champions. Libero Lexi Skripek had a match-high 18 digs.</p><p>Osenkarski had 17 kills and 9 blocks to lead the Royals.</p><p>Liskowicz added 11 kills and 4 blocks as Holy Redeemer did its best to make Bald Eagle Area work to finish off points.</p><p>&#8220;She was so unsung,&#8221; Kablick said. &#8220;Last year, she played hurt. Nobody knew it, but she couldn&#8217;t raise her shoulder.</p><p>&#8220;This year, that&#8217;s a healthy Sarah Lisk and she was a good complement to Skylar.&#8221;</p><p>Moore had nine kills, nine service points and a team-high 16 digs.</p><p>Korren Hicks finished with 32 assists and eight digs. Sarah Kuderka led the Royals in points with 10 while adding 14 digs. Julia Andrejko had 11 digs.</p><p>After giving up the matches first three points, Holy Redeemer led by as much as 11-7 in the first set.</p><p>The Eagles ran off 10 of the last 13 points to win the first set, then started the second set with the first four.</p><p>&#8220;We were a little disappointed about the first one, but they regrouped like they had all year,&#8221; Kablick said. &#8220;The girls are very resilient.&#8221;</p><p>Bald Eagle Area again finished the second set with a flurry, overcoming deficits of 20-17 and 23-21. Liskowicz took care of three of four points at one stage in the middle of the set and Osenkarski had some clutch shots late, but it was not enough.</p><p>&#8220;We looked at some videos of them,&#8221; Osenkarski said. &#8220;We knew what their key hitters were and tried to set our defense off of that.&#8221;</p><p>Then, the last set remained tight the whole way.</p><p>&#8220;They had excellent defense,&#8221; Moore said. &#8220;A lot of us were really pounding the ball and they would just manage to keep it up, which was really remarkable.&#8221;</p><p>Two straight kills by Osenkarski and another by Liskowicz gave Holy Redeemer its final lead of the season at 20-19.</p><p>&#8220;The first set our energy was down a little bit,&#8221; Osenkarski said. &#8220;The last two sets, we tried to play with intensity.</p><p>&#8220;We tried not to ever let up.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Holy Redeemer head girls volleyball coach John Kablick hangs a state silver medal around the neck of Skylar Osenkarski as the Royals look on. Holy Redeemer fell to Bald Eagle Area in the PIAA Class 2A championship on Saturday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_HR-Volleyball-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Holy Redeemer head girls volleyball coach John Kablick hangs a state silver medal around the neck of Skylar Osenkarski as the Royals look on. Holy Redeemer fell to Bald Eagle Area in the PIAA Class 2A championship on Saturday. </caption0><photoCredit0>Tom Robinson | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Tom Robinson</p><p>For Times Leader</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Times Leader sports at 570-829-7143 or on Twitter @TLsports</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Holy Redeemer girls volleyball edged by Bald Eagle Area in state finals