Mark Byers has witnessed the growth of girls volleyball while working for the PIAA.

"When I started at the PIAA 25 years ago, we had 520 schools participating in girls volleyball," said Byers, who will ascend to the position of executive director when Bob Lombardi retires at the end of the year. "Now we have 630 schools. That's a significant increase."

With volleyball's participation increasing that much, the PIAA voted to add two classifications to the current four-class format.

That means volleyball will join basketball and softball as the only girls sports with six classifications in the upcoming two-year cycle.

"There are more girls volleyball programs in the state than softball," said Our Lady of the Sacred Heart athletic director Michael McDonald, who is a member of the WPIAL and

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