LAWRENCEVILLE - After their District 4, Class AA quarterfinal win over Towanda on Saturday, the Mansfield Tigers gained a lot of confidence and momentum.
On Wednesday, that carried over into their semifinal match as Mansfield defeated Shamokin, 25-21, 25-18, 25-20.
"That was awesome," Shannon Madigan said. "After they had beaten us earlier this year, we turned the tables on them."
"That was a big game," Maddie York said. "That proved a lot to us and gave us a lot of confidence."
Things were a little different on Wednesday as the Tigers faced a team they knew very little about.
"It's hard to go into a game blind," York said.
"They looked like good hitters," Cassie Frederick said. "But, you can't tell too much from warm-ups."
"It was definitely a little weird," Madigan said. "But, everyone picked up the play pretty fast."
Now the Tigers advance to the District 4, Class AA final today at 6:30 p.m. at Williamson against a team they know a lot better, Wellsboro.
"I'm so pumped," York said. "It's exciting, especially because it's Wellsboro."
The Tigers know that it's always fun to play their rivals.
"They are big rivals and it's very exciting," Frederick said.
For the Tigers just being in the district final is something they have dreamed of.
"It's very exciting, I'm very pumped, it's my first experience," Debby Brown said. "It's pretty different for me. It's my first time at districts. I'm from Liberty and this is different. This year has worked really well though, we have played really well together."
The Mansfield players are excited to try for their first district title.
"It's really nice, everyone counted us out, we were the last seed in districts," York said. "I want it, I've wanted it ever since I started playing."
The Tigers have a long history of success in volleyball and the players have seen the banners on the wall and they want one of their own this year.
"I really want my name up there and my friends and teammates names up there," Madigan said.
Mansfield knows that the atmosphere should be special when they play Wellsboro.
"It is going to be intense, we definitely know we will have good fan support from our fans," Brown said.
On Wednesday the Tigers got nine points from Madigan, who had nine digs and three kills and Justin Berkowitz had eight points, 11 digs and three kills in the match.
Leah Fritz had seven points for Mansfield.
Mariah Berguson had nine digs to go with six blocks and six kills and Kaitlyn Garverick had six blocks in the match.
Frederick had six blocks for Mansfield and York had five kills, while Becca Toothacker had seven blocks and three kills for Mansfield.
