BHS Varsity Boys Volleyball Looking for a Deeper Postseason Run This Year

A year ago, the  varsity boys volleyball team entered its last match of the season fighting for a playoffs spot with its rivals from Bethel Park High School. A win would give Baldwin its section’s No. 2 seed in the WPIAL’s postseason, but a loss would push the team out of the tournament field altogether.

Baldwin did take the important match, 3-2, but eventually lost early in the 2010 playoffs.

That’s how tight Baldwin’s section has been over the past two years. This year, the Highlanders, competing for the 13th season under Head Coach Eric Falcione, are in another tight race, having clinched one of its section’s four playoffs spots with a 6-4 section record, good for third place now but just one match ahead of the fourth-place team from  (5-5 through May 5).

Falcione has his team focused not only on making the WPIAL playoffs this year but also on possibly making a run all the way to a PIAA championship.

The 2011 Highlanders are led by a strong class of five seniors: middle hitters Pat Costantini (6-foot) and Kevin Helinski (6-foot-4), defensive specialist Nick Galiardi (5-foot-11), outside hitter Tyler Szymanski (6-foot-1) and setter Phillip Wright (6-foot-2).

“We lost two 6-foot-6 middle hitters to graduation (from 2010),” Falcione said, “but we got (junior) Jordan Hartman that’s around 6-foot-4 that is a basketball player. (Hartman) changed his mind this year to play volleyball instead of baseball.”

About the senior class, Falcione had especially glowing remarks for Wright.

“He has been our starting setter for the past two years and has played club volleyball since the seventh grade,” Falcione said, “so the experience level is there to go along with him being a good blocker and an amazing setter.

“He’s a really good player.”

The Highlanders’ 2011 campaign started out impressively, as they went 4-0 in early section play. However, a tough night at Central Catholic High School gave the boys their first section loss of the season, 3-2.

To add injury to insult, the team also lost Hartman to an ankle issue against Central Catholic.

“We were leading, 13-11, in the fifth game when Hartman turned his ankle,” Falcione said. “He came out as we were just two points away from coming away from that match with a victory.”

After Hartman limped off, Central scored the next four points to win.

Central has since gone to 9-2 in the teams’ WPIAL AAA Section 1 standings (through May 5), trailing only Bethel Park’s 9-1 mark.

Below Baldwin and Peters Township in Section 1 this year are  (5-6),  (2-8) and Mount Lebanon (0-10) high schools, respectively.

As the season has gone on, Falcione has come to expect even more from his team.

“The second week of the season, we were ranked second overall in the WPIAL,” he said, “and the kids have been working hard all year. So I think that we have a great chance of pressing on (in the postseason) if we can get out of section play.

“There aren’t any real standout (team)s this year, so yeah, I think we have as good of a shot as anyone.”