Penn Hills traveled to Penn-Trafford for a Section 3-AAA match on Tuesday as it looked to stay alive in the race for the section title.

The Indians entered the match 8-2 in section.

Norwin (9-1) and Plum (8-2) also squared off on Tuesday.

Penn Hills closes out its section schedule tonight (Thursday) at home at 7:30 p.m. against Woodland Hills, while Plum travels to Gateway and Norwin hosts Penn-Trafford.

Plum, Penn Hills, Norwin and Penn-Trafford will represent Section 3 at the WPIAL playoffs, which are scheduled to begin as early as Tuesday.

The top four teams in each of the three sections will make up the playoff field in Class AAA.

In the event of ties in section for any of the four playoffs spots, Penn Hills head coach Dan Brown says, the playoff pairings committee looks at the most recent head-to-head matchups with the other playoff teams from the section.

"I think our section is the strongest of the three this year," Brown said. "It will be interesting to see how things play out in the playoffs."

Penn Hills 3, Plum 2

Just like the first meeting, last Thursday's Section 3 rematch between Penn Hills and Plum went to five sets.

In the end, Penn Hills exacted a measure of revenge for its loss to Plum earlier in the season.

The Indians won set one, three and the deciding set five in the match at Plum High School.

"Plum's an excellent team and they play awfully tough," Brown said. "It was a great match. If it was the first volleyball match anyone ever saw, they would certainly like volleyball. We may see each other in the playoffs. Who knows?"

In game one, Penn Hills built a 21-11 lead and saw Plum rally to as close as 23-16. However, the Indians used a pair of kills to close the game, 25-16.

Plum returned the favor in game two. Its largest lead of the game grew to 16-8 before Penn Hills closed the deficit to 21-18.

The Mustangs answered every Indian point down the stretch in the 25-21 victory.

Penn Hills took a 5-4 lead in game three and never trailed. The final score was 25-19, the Indians' largest lead of the game.

The Indians built a 22-18 lead in game four, but Plum scored seven straight points to win 25-22. It was the longest point streak by either team in the match.

"We have no excuse for losing game four," Brown said. "We just made errors. I think our kids thought the game was over, and they were going to cruise. They lost a little concentration, and all of a sudden, it was tied up."

Penn Hills opened a 7-2 lead in the fifth game (played to 15). Junior Micah Larson's forceful kill ended the game (15-10) and the match.

"We could have easily folded in the fifth game the way the fourth game went, but I was proud of the way the kids came out strong and never left any doubt," Brown said.

Brown credited the strong play of his team, especially juniors Rob Strauss, Larson and Dalton Cessarato.