Delone Catholic s Courtney McMaster (11) and Ali Bowker (1) block the spike of Schuylkill Valley s Julie Blessing during pool play in Monday s District 3 Class AA Tournament action at Hempfield High School. (Evening Sun - Meghan Gauriloff)
When you get this far in the season, it's not supposed to be this easy.

But the Delone Catholic High girls' volleyball team made sure to defy traditional logic Monday night at Hempfield High during the District 3 Class AA playoffs.

The highly confident Squirettes slalomed through Pool B with an 8-1 record, advancing to the quarterfinals Wednesday at Northern York High, where they will face West York -- the second-place team from Pool C -- at 7:30 p.m.

"I think it was a total team effort," said Squirettes head coach Stephanie Zortman, whose team was first in Pool B. "We were able to get everyone in every match. As a coach, that makes me happy."

Seniors Lauren Kotula (23 kills and 19 digs) and Chelsea Hoffman (44 digs, three assists) led the offensive and defensive attack for Delone Catholic in three series against Schuylkill Valley, Lancaster Mennonite and James Buchanan.

The district format required teams to play three games of three straight matches. The top two teams out of pool play would advance to the quarterfinals.

Allie Mondorff added 52 assists, six kills and five aces while Chantel McMaster produced 15 aces.

Zortman admitted it was McMaster's stellar service that led to a very quick start for the Squirettes in their last match of the night against James Buchanan. Delone Catholic forged leads of 9-1, 10-3 and 6-0 before taking three sets of 25-25-12, 25-12 and 25-19 in their easiest series of the night.

"We were able to put together

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longer stretches of point runs," Zortman said. "So that definitely helped get us out. Our serving, seems like in a lot of the matches, we were jumping out. Chantel McMaster served well for us tonight."

Things weren't so cut and dried against Lancaster Mennonite, though. The Blazers were operating out of the Lancaster-Lebanon League with an impressive 15-1 record.

The Squirettes faced adversity in the first match, heading late into the first game squared up with Mennonite, 18-18.

But after a service mistake by Mennonite and a kill by Courtney McMaster, the Squirettes went ahead 20-18 and forced a timeout by the Blazers. Delone came out of the timeout ready and scored the next two points, using its proficient defense and an ace by Nikki Snyder to take a four-point edge, 22-18.

The Squirettes managed to escape with a 25-22 win in the first game and did more of the same in the second set, taking a 25-20 edge.

"They definitely ran a quicker offense," Kotula said of Mennonite. "Their middles were pretty effective. They were good defensively. They really were."

In the third game, though, the Blazers were able to uproot the Squirettes with offensive tips and precise shot selection. Mennonite took the last game, 25-17.

"We tend to start very flat," Zortman said of describing the season's theme. "I was telling the girls that we are going to have to be able to come out and establish a high level of play and not be flat. Now that we are getting deeper in the season, if you do that against the wrong team, you're going to be going home."

That certainly wasn"t the case Monday night, however, as Delone was calm, collected and confident in three big matches. The Squirettes worked through their series well enough to be able to play their entire roster.

"Ever since the Cumberland Valley tournament we've been playing well as a team together," Hoffman said of those mid-October games. "I don't know what happened that day, but we all just came together and clicked."

"I told the girls it was nice to get everyone in," Zortman said. "(But) it only gets harder from here on out."