Girls’ Volleyball: Pottsville sweeps Panther Valley to claim Schuylkill League championship

The Pottsville girls' volleyball team poses with the Schuylkill League championship trophy (Photo by Eli Doyle).
POTTSVILLE — It was all Pottsville from start to finish.
Lainey Dusel totaled 23 digs and seven kills, Anna Burke collected 11 kills and six blocks, and Megan Yost poured in 38 assists and 15 digs as the Crimson Tide swept Panther Valley 25-11, 25-14, 25-20 on Thursday to capture the Schuylkill League girls’ volleyball championship at Martz Hall.
“The girls played great today, I couldn’t be more proud of them,” Pottsville coach Maria Sherakas said with tears in her eyes. “That is exactly the way they know how to play.”
It was a match Pottsville (17-3) had its eye on for some time as each team is very familiar with each other.
Panther Valley (18-3) and the Crimson Tide split regular-season league matchups. Pottsville won the first match 18-25, 25-16, 14-25, 25-17, 19-17 on Sept. 17 and the Panthers took the latter 23-25, 18-25, 26-24, 25-19, 16-14 on Oct. 10.
It goes back even further, too.
The match was a rematch of the 2023 championship that saw Panther Valley defeat the Tide 25-20, 23-25, 20-25, 26-24, 15-9.
“We worked hard for this, we had this goal in sight we lost last year,” Sherakas said. “And our girls did amazing today. They all played amazing. The defense was stellar today, they didn’t let anything drop.

“We anticipated, Panther Valley’s a great team. I mean, you have to make less mistakes against a great team and we did. We moved the ball around, we picked up their shots and we didn’t let anything drop.”
Pottsville wasted no tome burying the Panthers in the first set. The Tide only committed three errors and saw kills from a multitude of players, including Maggie Brennan, Rhyan Brennan, Ava Schwartz, Dusel, Burke and Yost.
The Tide rattled off seven consecutive points early to lead 10-3 and didn’t take their foot off the pedal. A Panthers’ ball handling error capped the set for Pottsville 25-11.
The second set the same as the Crimson Tide got rolling and there was no stopping.
Burke started the set with a kill assisted by Yost and Schwartz followed with an ace for Pottsville to push ahead 2-0, but this time Panther Valley answered.
