It’s bump, set, and serve into a winning season for your Ladycats volleyball team.

The Beaver Area volleyball team has started a run towards this year’s WPIAL championships.

The team had a rough start to the season, but while some say a gold medal is in their future others say the team is just getting started.

Currently, the Bobcats are 16-4-1 on the season with a conference record of just 1-0. These wins and losses also include results from various tournaments.

September 10 Beaver Area played against Lincoln Park at home and walked away with a swift 3-0 victory.

The game lasted less than an hour with scores of 25-2, 25-4, and 25-5.

Lincoln Park’s volleyball program has struggled for years so this meant that the Ladycats were able to treat this game as a glorified practice.

The Bobcats all had great statistics and were going through the motions to finish off the Leopards.

Likewise, just two days later the Ladycats got their first section win against New Castle.

The score was 3-0 with similar scores of 25-10, 25-8, and 25-5.

These scores are more parallel to how the Bobcats were performing last season and despite the Hurricanes being a small, less talented team, a win is still a win.

But the real test came that September weekend at the annual MAC tournament.

Last season, the Bobcats were tournament champions so this year they hosted the two-day event.

To keep things rolling over the two days, only one or two sets are played depending on how both teams score.

The best teams are purposely put on opposite corners of the brackets so they get the most playing time and only meet in the semifinals or final round.

This meant that on the first day, September 14, the Beaver Area team rolled through opposing teams and were quickly into the finals. The Bobcats defeated Neshannock twice, Shenango, Quaker Valley, and Central Valley very quickly.

This meant that September 15 the Bobcats had to play the Mars Fightin’ Planets in the finals.

With only one set played, Beaver Area walked away with a silver medal and a loss of 25-22.

The Bobcats were considered the better team but were flustered when met with such serious competition, so in the end, Mars stayed calm and took home the gold.

Eventually, both Mars and Beaver Area will meet again for the WPIAL championships, and they are now one of the team’s biggest competitors next to Freeport.

Nonetheless, junior Lanie Malobabich had four kills while junior Kailyn Connelly had three.

Connelly was named to the MAC all-tournament team which is composed of one player from each team that competed at the tournament.

Also exciting, during the tournament senior Zoe Ringer earned her 3000th assist. This surpasses Beaver Area's records and means that she has averaged almost 1000 sets per high school season she has competed in.

Following the tournament, the Bobcats had a win against the Ambridge Bridgers September 19. The final scores were 25-5, 25-12, and 25-14, with the Bridgers slowly starting to give the Bobcats a competition.

Sophomore Kaylee Kisling had five kills, junior Jaedyn Brown had seven kills, and Malobabich had eight.

Malobabich also led the team in blocks with two, and Brown led in aces with three.

Unfortunately, the team is still injury-ridden with libero and junior Aubrey Bumblis out for this game with a hand injury and junior and outside hitter Anna Vinopal out for the season. Vinopal tore her ACL and MCL at the MAC tournament. She was the starting outside hitter for the Bobcats.

This means that Connelly will now play as the outside, Malobabich will be the starting middle instead of Connelly, and freshman Kayden Blinn will play as the right side.

This shuffle will allow Malobabich to have more playing time as middle and Connelly to play a new position.

The Bobcats had a five-day break and were able to rest until a game September 24 against Blackhawk.

Despite being comparable to teams like Central Valley and Riverside last year, the Cougars have gotten better. The Bobcats ended with a 3-0 win but it was a good game.

The Cougars never lost by more than 10 points and were able to make multiple kills on the Bobcats.

But get ready: October 1 Mars is back and ready to fight.

Check the next BASD ECHO for the results of these highly anticipated games.