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Nathan Zini (#5) recorded 43 kills and two aces to lead Seton LaSalle to a 3-1 win over North Catholic in the WPIAL Class 2A boys volleyball title match Saturday at Fox Chapel High School. Zini is a 6-7 senior outside hitter and St. Francis University recruit. It's the first WPIAL title for Seton LaSalle.
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WPIAL boys volleyball championships: ‘Zini Show’ ends with Class 2A title

photo by J.J. LaBella, Tri-State Sports & News Service

WPIAL boys volleyball championships: ‘Zini Show’ ends with Class 2A title

Seton LaSalle senior outside hitter records 43 kills to top N. Catholic

It was the Nathan Zini Show in the WPIAL Class 2A boys vol­ley­ball ti­tle match Wed­nes­day at Fox Chapel.

Zini, a 6-7 se­nior out­side hit­ter, recorded 43 kills and two aces to lead Seton LaSalle to its first WPIAL ti­tle with a 3-1 win over North Cath­o­lic.

“He’s a phe­nom­e­nal player,” said North Cath­o­lic coach Stacie Ball of Zini. “They go to him 95 per­cent of the time. We changed our de­fense a cou­ple times and still couldn’t stop him.”

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Seton LaSalle was mak­ing its sec­ond ti­tle ap­pear­ance in three years. The Reb­els lost to Am­bridge in the 2019 fi­nal and were con­sid­ered the team to beat last year, but the sea­son was can­celled by COVID-19.

“This ti­tle is even more mean­ing­ful when you con­sider the can­cel­la­tion of last sea­son,” said Zini, a Saint Francis re­cruit. “We knew this was the last shot for our se­niors so we had to give it ev­ery­thing.”

Seton LaSalle dom­i­nated the first two sets with Zini lead­ing the way. He recorded 11 kills and an ace in a 25-16 win in game one. Zini’s dom­i­nance con­tin­ued in the sec­ond set as he recorded 12 kills in a 25-18 vic­tory.

“We were a lit­tle jit­tery when we came out,” Ball said. “This was our first time in a match of this im­por­tance and it showed.”

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North Cath­o­lic fi­nally put it to­gether in the third set. The Tro­jans jumped out to a 6-2 lead and held on for a 25-21 vic­tory. They had a sim­i­lar start in the fourth set and built a 22-17 lead. Zini took charge from that point, re­cord­ing his last four kills to rally the Reb­els to a 25-23 vic­tory.

“Nathan is the best player in the state,” Seton LaSalle coach John Law­rence said. “He’s car­ried us all year. This was his best match of the year.”

Class 3A

North Al­le­gheny recorded its fourth con­sec­u­tive ti­tle and 21st over­all with a 3-1 win over Sen­eca Val­ley. It was the third time the Tigers beat the Raid­ers this sea­son, as the two met twice in Sec­tion 2, and marked the 58th con­sec­u­tive win for coach Dan Schall’s squad.

“Sen­eca Val­ley is so good,” Schall said. “They played a fan­tas­tic match. The at­mo­sphere here at Fox Chapel [with a packed crowd] was ab­so­lutely elec­tric. It’s ex­actly what you would want from a WPIAL or state fi­nal. It’s never easy to beat a team three times.We were for­tu­nate to beat them again.”

Sen­eca Val­ley jumped out to a 4-2 lead in the first set and held on for a 25-22 vic­tory. North Al­le­gheny evened the match with a 25-23 vic­tory in set two.

The Tigers built a 15-10 lead in set three and held off a late surge by the Raid­ers to record a 25-23 vic­tory. The fourth set was also close, but North Al­le­gheny pulled out a 25-21 vic­tory.

David San­fil­lippo led North Al­le­gheny with 15 kills and Mi­chael Mos­bacher added 12 kills and three aces. Mi­chael Devlin led Sen­eca Val­ley with 18 kills.

The top three fin­ishers in each class qual­ify for the PIAA tour­na­ment, which starts Tuesday.

First Published: May 27, 2021, 3:44 a.m.

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Nathan Zini (#5) recorded 43 kills and two aces to lead Seton LaSalle to a 3-1 win over North Catholic in the WPIAL Class 2A boys volleyball title match Saturday at Fox Chapel High School. Zini is a 6-7 senior outside hitter and St. Francis University recruit. It's the first WPIAL title for Seton LaSalle.  (photo by J.J. LaBella, Tri-State Sports & News Service)
photo by J.J. LaBella, Tri-State Sports & News Service
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