skip navigation

PIAA 6A Girls Championship Preview: Archbishop Carroll vs. Cedar Cliff

03/23/2023, 1:15am EDT
By Sean McBryan

Sean McBryan (@SeanMcBryan)

To capture the program’s first title in more than a decade, Archbishop Carroll will have to gain a measure of revenge. 

It was a year ago that the Patriots’ postseason ended in the second round of states at the hands of Cedar Cliff, who went on to lose to a Plymouth Whitemarsh squad in the process of completing a perfect season.

Now Cedar Cliff is trying to do the same, the Colts themselves on the brink of perfection, the Patriots their only final obstacle. 

Archbishop Carroll and Cedar Cliff will battle for the PIAA Class 6A girls basketball title Friday at 6 at Hershey’s Giant Center. Even though there’s some familiarity between the two, Carroll coach Renie Shields hopes that last year’s matchup won’t factor into this year’s outcome.

“It’s another game, another opponent,” Shields told CoBL by phone Wednesday. “Fortunately these kids have short memories. We don’t talk about it. It’s our next game and we keep telling the kids we’re playing a team that’s very good.”

Cedar Cliff fell to eventual champion Plymouth-Whitemarsh in the semifinals last season and advanced to the first state final in program history this year.

The Colts (30-0) defeated Garnet Valley (45-28), Upper Dublin (39-26), Upper St. Clair (39-22), and Norwin (55-47 in overtime) to move on to the championship.

“Last year that group kind of set the tone for us,” Cedar Cliff head coach Scott Weyant said. “Those kids have been playing together since they were in elementary school. All of those kids have grown up playing together so I knew it was going to be a special season. I didn’t know it was going to be that good.

“But I think being in that situation and getting that experience last year kind of fueled our fire for this year.”

Guard Olivia Jones scored 17 points, with guard Taylor Ferraro (10) and wing Sydney Weyant (9) joining her as the top three scorers for the Colts in last season’s state win over the Patriots. The 5-10 Jones is now a sophomore while Ferraro and Weyant are seniors.

Jones is the top scorer and has offers from St. Joe’s, Delaware, Monmouth, and others; Ferraro is committed to Penn to play soccer; and Weyant is committed to play basketball at Susquehanna.

Jones and Ferraro are the primary ball handlers while Weyant is the top three-point shooter with 53 3’s made on the season.


Taylor Wilson (above), a 6-0 forward, is committed to play at West Point. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

All of that goes without mentioning arguably Cedar Cliff’s biggest advantage: height. The two post starters, Alexis Buie and Kathryn Sansom, both measure 6-foot-2. Buie is the team’s second-leading scorer and averaged 6.5 points and 5.6 rebounds last season on Central Dauphin, which also went to the 2022 6A semifinals.

For what it’s worth, the Colts defeated Cardinal O’Hara 42-38 Dec. 17 this season.

The Patriots (16-13) also defeated O’Hara, their Catholic League rivals, albeit when the stakes were much higher, in the state semifinals Monday. Carroll defeated a trio of District 1 teams — Neshaminy, District 1 champ Perkiomen Valley, and Abington — before that.

Archbishop Carroll is appearing in the state championship for the first time since 2019, when it lost to Chartiers Valley in the 5A title game.

Senior Army commit and 6-0 forward Taylor Wilson, who hit the deciding foul shots with 5.3 seconds left in the semifinal win over Cardinal O’Hara, and her sister 5-9 junior guard Brooke Wilson spearhead the Patriots’ attack.

The duo combined for 28 of Carroll’s 31 points against O’Hara.

The elder Wilson scored a team-high 16 points against Cedar Cliff in the state second-round game last season.

“They’re obviously well-coached,” Weyant said. “They play great defense. The Wilson sisters are top-notch. They’re patient on offense. They know where they want to get their shots from. It’s going to be a tough task.”


Freshman guard Alexis Eberz (above) has been starting all season long for the Patriots. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Archbishop Carroll is a much different team this season — much more so than Cedar Cliff — after Grace O’Neill (Drexel) and Maggie Grant (Villanova) graduated. Yet here the Patriots are.

Key contributors in senior guards Meg Sheridan and Courtland Schumacher and freshman guard Alexis Eberz have stepped up throughout the season.

The Patriots are only three games above .500 because they play in the PCL and a strenuous out-of-league schedule to prepare for this moment.

“I felt we were tested and we weren’t winning tests,” Shields said. “The good thing about this team is they come every day ready to practice and get better and that never wavered throughout the year. Even when the record wasn’t reflective of what we thought we were capable of doing, those girls kept showing up.

“I think our ability now to overcome runs in games is much better. I think we’re more poised in situations because of what we’ve experienced early on in the season when we weren’t winning. I think we’re basically playing mentally and physically just better.”

On Friday, Archbishop Carroll aims to win their first state title since 2012, stop Cedar Cliff from winning its first and get some revenge for the Colts knocking it out of the state playoffs last season. Even if the Patriots aren’t talking about that.


D-I Coverage:

HS Coverage:

Small-College News:

Tag(s): Home  Sean McBryan  High School  Girls HS  Catholic League (G)  Archbishop Carroll