PIAA Tournament Preview: Wyomissing (28-0) vs. Carver Engineering & Sciences (8-10)
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What: Class 4A, first round
When: Saturday, 1:00
Where: Wyomissing
About the Engineers (12-5)
Secured the fifth seed out of District 12, which encompasses the Philadelphia Public and Catholic Leagues, after falling in the Pub League quarterfinals and beating West Catholic in a state play-in game.
It’ll be an uphill battle against District 3 champ Wyomissing, which defeated last season’s District 12 fifth seed Parkway Center City 69-24 in the opening round. The Spartans led 25-3 after one quarter and 47-13 at the half in that game.
“My expectation is David vs. Goliath,” Engineering & Sciences head coach Joe Schreiber said. “Our game plan is to try and utilize our speed and neutralize Amaya Stewart.”
Stewart, a 6-1 junior, picked up her first Division I offer from Temple University before her sophomore season. She had a double-double in this round last year prior to racking up All-State honors.
“She’s really mature and has a ton of energy and passion,” Schreiber said. “We are definitely a small team, but I think we’re a fast team. We’re going to try and use that as much as possible.
Carver — the academic magnet school sitting on the edge of Temple’s campus — has produced DePaul University standouts and WNBA draft picks Brittany Hrynko and Keisha Hampton, who teamed up to lead the Engineers to a program-record 25 wins in reaching the state quarterfinals in 2008.
“That team was a dominant team,” said Schreiber, who was involved with the team at the time and has been the head coach since 2019. “They had a great core. We’re in a rebuild this year and have come around as the season’s gone on.”
The Engineers are led by 5-8 junior Savannah Hall, who averages 20 points per game and leads the team in rebounding.
She’s joined in the starting lineup by 5-7 sophomore forward Desiray Zepp, 5-4 sophomore guard Isabella Brown, senior guard Mikaela Briggs, and junior guard Anaya Cobb.
The Engineers qualified for the tournament last season and fell in the first round to Nazareth; it was the first PIAA appearance for the program since 2019.
Schreiber’s assistant coach Hassan Brockman has the same role for the prestigious St. Joe’s Prep football program, so the hope is that his experiences as the Goliath in that realm can bring some perspective to the Engineers as they head to Wyomissing.
“We look forward to playing,” Schreiber said. “Let’s see what we have. It’ll be a good test for Savannah, our bigs, and the subs that will come in. We’ll see what we can do and learn from it.”
Schreiber mentioned the string of shootings at SEPTA bus stations potentially affecting his players being able to get to the game. Multiple players use public transportation to get to the school, where the team bus leaves from.
“Hopefully everybody can safely make it and we can get on that yellow bus and make our way there,” Schreiber said. “And compete to our best abilities against an undefeated team.”
The winner will play either (11-2) Blue Mountain or (12-3) Neumann-Goretti in the second round Wednesday.
