Michael Love stories, Page 51

Parker Sterlitz made his first visit to West Virginia University about a year ago. The senior swimming standout at Kiski Area said he immediately fell in love with the campus and the Mountaineers swimming program. Since then, Sterlitz said, he looked at other schools and found himself comparing them to...

It’s about that time. The regular season for WPIAL girls volleyball concludes with the end of section play Thursday and a couple of nonsection matchups Friday and Saturday. The road to the four WPIAL championship games Nov. 5 begins next week. There are section championships and playoff qualifiers to be...

Montour, North Allegheny, Bethel Park, Baldwin and Shaler each recorded doubleheader sweeps Sunday as the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Softball League nears the conclusion of its regular season and prepares for its playoff tournament. Before the playoff brackets can be finalized, there is one more regular-season game to be played. Baldwin,...

Anna Yourish looked on a couple of years ago as her older brother, Josh, represented Deer Lakes at the PIAA championships in track and field. Josh now is a senior on the men’s track team at Division I George Mason. Anna, too, wanted the opportunity to compete at a state...

Gateway led Penn-Trafford, 14-3, in the fourth quarter of their Victory Bell rivalry game Oct. 7, at Gateway’s Antimarino Stadium. The Warriors were driving near midfield as they attempted to rally. But 6-foot-1, 220-pound junior inside linebacker Remy Bose would have none of it. Bose dissected a P-T screen, intercepted...

The Gateway boys soccer team enters the WPIAL Class 3A playoffs hoping to make some noise, and senior forward Colton Corrie says the Gators are set up to do just that. “We’ve seen so many different styles in the regular season that we are ready for anything in the playoffs,”...

Leechburg senior running back and Pitt commit Braylan Lovelace needed 217 yards against Riverview on Friday in an Eastern Conference matchup to become just the fifth Alle-Kisk Valley runner to eclipse the 4,000-yard mark for a career. Lovelace accomplished that, and then some, against the Raiders, totaling five touchdowns and...

It’s time for a postseason rumble, and the Plum boys soccer team is ready, coach Raf Kolankowski said. The Mustangs again are a favorite to challenge for the WPIAL title in Class 3A, but Kolankowski said they will be entering a bracket with a stacked field. “Obviously, it’s not going...

The Plum girls soccer team is no stranger to postseason pressure and opportunity, and the Mustangs will get a chance in the coming days to prove it. Plum coach Jamie Stewart said his team, which expected to garner one of the top seeds among the likes of defending WPIAL and...

The Penn-Trafford football team got that winning feeling back Friday after last week’s tough loss to rival Gateway. The Warriors churned out 377 yards on the ground, compiled 499 yards of total offense and produced a 35-21 victory over Plum in a Big East Conference Class 5A game at Warrior...

The Deer Lakes girls soccer team was in must-win mode Wednesday as it hosted Valley in a Section 2-2A game at Lancers Stadium. And a win is what the Lancers got. Freshman Bryanna Simonetti scored with 29 minutes, 57 seconds left in the second half off an assist from senior...

Tyler Bender Highlands, sr., OL/DL The veteran lineman helped create defensive havoc for the Golden Rams against Woodland Hills last week. He made five tackles, recorded one of Highlands’ 11 sacks and intercepted a pass in a 38-23 victory. For the season, Bender is second on the team in tackles...

Class 5A Big East Plum (3-4, 1-2) at Penn-Trafford (4-3, 1-2) 7:30 p.m. Friday, Warrior Stadium, Harrison City Plum dropped its third straight game, falling 20-6 at South Fayette. The Mustangs scored first on a short touchdown pass from Sean Franzi to Jerome Brazell but gave up 20 unanswered points....

The Freeport girls volleyball maintained its two-game lead on the rest of Section 5-2A Tuesday evening with a dominant 3-0 victory over Derry at Freeport Middle School. “We just played how we know we can,” senior setter Cassidy Dell said. “We played very loose, very relaxed, and we had some...

The Valley girls soccer team has a chance to set a record and do what only one other team has done in the program’s 20 years. With a win or a tie Wednesday at Deer Lakes, the Vikings (6-6 overall, 5-5 Section 2-2A) will clinch a WPIAL playoff spot for...

The Burrell girls volleyball team visits Deer Lakes and hosts Freeport next week to close out Section 5-2A play. The Bucs seek to avenge their only two section losses, a 3-1 setback to the Lancers and a 3-0 defeat at the hands of the Class 2A No. 1 Yellowjackets a...

A dominant run atop the Western Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association’s Class A top-10 rankings has come to an end. Bishop Canevin, the five-time defending WPIAL Class A champion, suffered its first section loss Thursday with a 3-0 setback to No. 8 Eden Christian in Section 3 play. It was the...

Bethel Park, Baldwin, Mt. Lebanon, Shaler, Penn-Trafford and North Hills each recorded doubleheader sweeps in game play from last Wednesday to Sunday as teams jockey for position in the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Softball League. The regular season is to conclude Sunday with seven scheduled doubleheaders. As of Monday, one doubleheader...

A key goal for the Gateway girls volleyball team at the start of the 2022 season was to improve on last year’s 2-10 record in section play. So far this fall, that goal has been reached, and then some. Through last week’s 3-0 victory over West Mifflin, the Gators stood...

Members of the Gateway girls cross country team tested their mettle at the Division I, Section 4 championships Oct. 5 at Northmoreland Park, and the Gators took fourth in the team standings as a pair of runners earned medals for top-15 performances. Under sunny skies and warm temperatures in the...

It’s never an easy proposition playing a football game at the venerable Wolvarena in Turtle Creek. But Highlands stepped away from Greater Allegheny Conference play Friday and took care of business with a 38-23 victory at the home of Class 5A Woodland Hills. The Golden Rams, who average 32.1 points,...

Each year, the Riverview cross country teams venture beyond the borders of Pennsylvania to test themselves at a high-level meet. This year, the Raiders took part in the 57th annual McQuaid Invitational on Oct. 1 in Rochester, N.Y. The event attracts more than 200 teams each year. The Riverview boys...

The Plum boys cross country team challenged the top teams in Division I, Section 4 at the league championships at Northmoreland Park on Oct. 5, and the Mustangs rallied together for third place. Under sunny skies and warm temperatures in the mid 60s, Plum placed three in the top 10,...

Last year’s Allegheny Conference matchup between Valley and Deer Lakes was low scoring at Lancers Stadium as the Lancers came away with the win thanks to a single touchdown accounting for the only points. Points again were at a premium Friday night as the teams renewed their rivalry at Valley...

For the first time since 2015, the Kiski Area girls cross country team is section champion. The Cavaliers placed three runners in the top six, including the individual champion in junior Eliza Miller, to hold off the challenge of Fox Chapel, Franklin Regional and Gateway under sunny skies at Northmoreland...