Pennridge defended its district title, defeating top-seeded Council Rock North 3-1. Pennsbury edge West 3-2 to earn a berth in states. Photos courtesy of Jon Sklut. Check back to a gallery of photos.
#3 PENNRIDGE 3, #1 COUNCIL ROCK NORTH 1 (25-21, 15-25, 25-20, 25-17)
Focus.
That was the difference in Pennridge’s performance in the second set and the third and fourth sets of Thursday night’s District I boys’ volleyball title match with Council Rock North. CR North, hungry for another shot at the Rams after being swept out of last year’s title match had just taken Pennridge apart in the second set.
But, a much more focused team in green stepped out for the third set and the match wasn’t the same. With junior hitter Ben Chinnici and the program’s core seniors providing the needed leadership and focus, the Rams won their second straight district trophy, besting a game Indians team 3-1 (25-21, 15-25, 25-20, 25-17) at William Tennent.
“A lot of it was focus,” Chinnici said. “We needed to get our platform set, get behind the ball and make good passes. From there, Jesse (Smith) is going to give you a good set if he gets a good pass.”
Rock North coach Greg Marchetti said planning for a team like Pennridge is tough with only a day between the semifinals and finals, but had nothing bad to say about the way his team performed. Senior Will Desautelle, who has been limited by an ankle injury, gamely played through it and was excellent in North’s lopsided second set win.
However, the Rams made adjustments on defense, which helped them get into their offense and that eventually proved too much. Pennridge senior Aaron Nelson, who had an all-around strong match, played good defense on Rock North senior middle Jason Yakimiv while Chinnici shook off a slow start to finish blisteringly strong.
“The court gets very, very small when you can’t pass balls to target,” Marchetti said. “We struggled passing, in the last game especially. There were a couple small points where we’re one point away, one play away and they just put together a two or three-point serving run and just hold it. That’s what they do.”
Both teams traded punches throughout the first set with Pennridge gaining a 23-20 edge on a block that allowed the Rams to close it out. But they were just out of sorts in the second set, serving some balls into the net and just getting pulled apart on defense. Marchetti said that due to his team’s especially clean passing, which made the court look wider and more open.
Things weren’t going well for Pennridge but it had the chance to change that all around. And it did, the sign of a team that has been in that kind of spot before.
“We responded like you would hope we’d respond after that,” Rams coach Dave Childs said. “(Rock North) is a good team and they took it to us there and made us look silly at times. I think it brought something out of them there that we needed so that was a good thing.”
Pennridge’s defense got tighter, with senior libero Austin Rush picking up his play, the block got more touches and every guy on the floor seemed to provide a lift. With better defense came better passes to Smith, and the senior started to funnel his usual precise sets to the right guys.
“Myself, Jesse and Ben, we’re the captains, we wanted to be fired up,” Nelson said. “We’re the three returning players from last year, we know what it’s like to be in the finals.
“Most of the others guys, we needed them to know they needed to get fired up. You need to want this, that was going to be the difference between the trophy and second place - if you wanted it or if you didn’t.”
The turning point in the third game was a 7-1 Rams’ surge started by kills from Chinnici and Nelson. Chinnici had two kills, a block and an ace in the run and locked in after Childs took him out for a few points to have a quick talk to get the junior back in gear.
Pennridge stopped a late rally attempt by CR North and took the final three points of the set to regain the match lead at 2-1 but still faced a crucial juncture starting the next set. Childs said sometimes a big finish doesn’t always translate to a good start, but the Rams managed to get two of North’s best servers off the line quickly.
Then, they got rolling on a 10-1 spree, the key point after a long rally with Smith out of the game. After going back and forth, the ball found its way to Nelson, who back-set Chinnici for a kill to make it 15-10.
“I was pretty sure he was back there, he usually is,” Nelson said. “He’s always ready for it. I’ve back set for him in practice because I’ve needed to and he’s such a good player he can take an off set and make a great play out of it.”
“In high school, to watch a player of that caliber, (Chinnici)’s a five-tool player,” Marchetti said. “He does it all.”
The Rams opened their lead up to 23-12, then closed it out with a last kill from Chinnici to take home the trophy for the second straight season.
“It was just focus,” Chinnici said. “Our whole team, throughout the whole match I don’t think we dropped anything we shouldn’t have, other than in the second set. We pushed through a whole match consistently as best we could and that was huge.”
Chinnici’s 22 kills were a match high, and he also had three blocks and two aces. Smith finished with 41 assists, nine digs and one ace. Josiah Friesen (nine kills, two blocks), Aaron Nelson (nine kills, six blocks) and Cross Edwards (six kills, 17 digs, two blocks) also made major contributions. Austin Rush finished with 10 digs, and Jeremy Blum had seven. Kevin Jones added three kills.
Desautelle led the Indians with 17 kills to go along with 12 digs and one ace. Yakimiv added 10 kills, two blocks, 19 digs and one ace. Setter Logan Fulgestad had 35 assists, 13 digs, four kills, three aces and .5 blocks. Eric Van Thuyne added six kills, seven digs, three aces and two blocks. Aaron Knotts led the defense with 15 digs and one assist while Alex Saraceno had eight digs. Sean Hemlinger had three kills and five digs, Harry Wyatt added three digs and one kill while Robby Ward added one ace.
#2 PENNSBURY 3, #4 CB WEST 2
When Sean Sweeney arrived at Pennsbury as a freshman, the expectation was that the boys’ volleyball team would be a contender at the state level.
Of course, every great program goes through phases of rebuilding, and that happened to coincide with Sweeney’s freshman and sophomore seasons when the Falcons uncharacteristically missed states. Now a junior, Sweeney and his classmates made sure it wouldn’t be three straight.
The junior hitter put down an impressive 25 kills as the Falcons outlasted CB West 3-2 (25-20, 23-25, 25-19, 24-26, 15-11) Thursday night at William Tennent in the District I consolation game.
“There are a lot of seniors on the team and we said this is it for us,” Sweeney said. “I know a lot of the guys on West, they’re a good team with a great defense and I had a feeling it was going to go five.
“It’s huge to get back to states. In the past the standard has been that Pennsbury is a state competitor and always competing in states. It feels good to get our team back to that standard.”
In Falcons coach Justin Fee’s 16 years, his teams have now only missed states four times. In order to keep that number at four on Thursday, his team had to try and slow down West’s offense, primarily Daniel Klapper and Ryan Alu.
As it turned out, preparing for Tuesday’s semifinal with Pennridge helped against West. Both teams run a high-tempo offense with quick sets, so the Falcons’ block was tuned in to moving and reacting quickly. The result was a staggering 13 solo and 13 block assists, which Fee said might have been a program record.
“After playing Pennridge, when things started to get tight, our guys started to slip and they weren’t really playing to win,” Fee said. “I said now’s your chance, whether you’re a junior, senior or younger kid in the program, step up and really be that leader that wants the ball and will really go at it.”
Setter Kevin Killoran had 10 blocks (five solo, five assist) while middle Kenny Hickman was credited for 12 blocks (three solo, nine assist). In addition to his kill total, Sweeny had 12 digs and five blocks while Killoran also had a team best 15 digs.
Alu posted 12 kills and nine digs for West while Klapper had 11 kills and 20 digs.
“I’m hoping the bonds these guys built here will last a lifetime,” West coach Todd Miller said. “It’s worth more and the investment is far greater than just thatmatch.”
Pennsbury: Sean Sweeney 25 kills, 12 digs, 5 blocks; Brett Garretson 4 kills, assist, 4 digs, 4 blocks; Kevin Killoran 2 kills, 44 assists, 14 digs, 10 blocks; Kenny Hickman 5 kills, 3 digs, 12 blocks; Brad Edwards 14 digs, 2 assists; James Greenland 8 kills, 8 digs, 3 blocks; Mason Reilly 5 kills, 5 blocks
CB West: Ryan Alu 12 kills, 9 digs; Daniel Klapper 11 kills, 20 digs, Sam Winderman 11 digs, Will Varner 7 kills, 4 assists, 14 digs; Matt Douple 41 assists, 8 digs
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