EXETER — In the six years Dani McAndrew has been coaching the Pittston Area girls volleyball team, she had yet to beat Wyoming Area.
And last week, the Patriots beat Tunkhannock for the first time under McAndrew. That trend continued on Monday when Pittston Area traveled to Exeter.
The Patriots took down rival Wyoming Area, 3-0, in Wyoming Valley Conference girls volleyball action to improve to .500 (3-3) on the season. Wyoming Area, after losing a handful of seniors from last year’s district runner-up team, fell to 0-5.
“We have a long road ahead of us,” McAndrew said. “I think we’re going to be in good shape going forward following this win.”
Pittston Area’s lone senior, setter Kirsten Durling, finished the match with 14 assists, three aces and six kills. She was followed by junior Emily O’Brien, who had 13 service points, eight aces and two kills.
McAndrew said O’Brien has really stepped into a leadership role for the Patriots.
“She’s the most consistent server I’ve seen in a long time,” McAndrew said.
Durling, while focused on the rivalry, saw it as another win for her young squad.
“It’s pretty exciting to get a win over them,” she said. “We’ve been getting better every day and we really worked together as a team today.”
Portia Weidlich had seven kills and an ace, while Liz Charney had four aces and three kills.
The game scores were 25-9, 25-6 and 25-18. In the second set, O’Brien recorded four straight aces to take Pittston Area out to an early lead and never looked back. The Warriors, however, fought back in the final game. Wyoming Area took a 3-0 lead, and trailed only 13-11 prior to Pittston Area pulling away.
On Wednesday, Wyoming Area travels to Wyoming Valley on Wednesday, while Pittston Area hosts Lake-Lehman.
