Upper Merion is the only SOL girls’ volleyball team advancing to Tuesday night’s District One AAA quarterfinal round.
#1 UPPER MERION 3, #16 HATBORO-HORSHAM 1 (25-15, 25-18, 23-25, 25-16)
The Hatters are one of the few teams to tarnish UM's nearly perfect game record, extending the district’s top-seeded team to four games for just the second time this season. The offense was led by junior Sam Jones with 17 kills. Junior Alexa Kennedy and sophomore Jaimee Stoczko both added seven kills. Junior Dymond Black had three kills and two blocks. Jones, Stoczko and senior Katie McKay had two blocks apiece. Junior Candyce Riley and Jones led the defense with 26 and 22 digs respectively. Riley posted nearly perfect passing scores. Seniors Hannah Steiger and McKay dished out 21 and 17 assists.
#2 DOWNINGTOWN EAST 3, #18 CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 0 (25-15, 25-19, 25-17)
The Patriots ran into a powerful East squad that looked every bit the part of the district’s second seed.
“It's not the way we wanted to go out,” coach Scott Geller said. “We played a very strong Downingtown team whom I think will compete for the district title.”
Hannah Lunak led the Patriots with nine kills to go along with five digs and two service aces. Lindsay McIntosh added six kills. Rachel Clow had a team-high 12 digs while Bridget Terrel had 11 and Lauren Helveston, eight. Erin lane had seven digs. Helveston also had 20 assists.
“CB East has come very far in the past two years, and it's only going to make us hungrier to get over that hump of the second round in districts,” Geller said. “Just like I've been telling the girls all year - we don't look back we look forward. And forward we will. To our seniors we will miss you!”
#5 WEST CHESTER HENDERSON 3, WILLIAM TENNENT 1 (25-10, 23-25, 25-19, 25-22)
Brian Bassler knew his team would have its hands full against a Henderson squad that had swept the Panthers in their season opener in late August.
He was right.
“They’re good,” Bassler said. “Not a whole lot changed since the first time we saw them. Maybe their outside hitters were a little bit better, but their formula was the same.
“They are just awesome at serving, and their outside hitters are really good, and they play awesome defense. They push you around a lot. They’re the aggressors a lot of the match, and they like to do that. We knew what was coming, and they still beat us 25-10 in the first game.”
The Panthers showed their character, bouncing back and making it a match. The won the second game and trailed 11-1 in the fourth game but rallied back to tie it 22-22 in a gutsy effort.
“We had our chances,” Bassler said.
The loss was the Panthers first in 20 matches, and losing did not come easily for this special group of players.
“It’s so hard,” Bassler said. “When you get a team that hates to lose like this, it’s phenomenal. As a coach, it’s what you want to see.
“There’s nothing I could say that could make them feel any better, and that’s the kind of kids you would want. I asked them, ‘If we turned the bus around and played them again, would we win?’ They said, ‘Yes, we would love to have another shot.’
“I’ve had teams before that if we lost the first set 25-10, they couldn’t wait to get back on the bus and go home and not want to play. All these girls wanted to do was take another shot at it. I told them – they’re going to be winners in life, and as a coach, that’s really exciting to see when you watch players from ninth grade to their senior year, and you watch their character grow, and you watch them in the classroom and on the court, and you know they’re going to succeed when they leave high school.”
Thursday’s loss marked the end of the line for the team’s five seniors – Cecilia Weir, Chelsea Gallagher, Casey McMahon, Ashley Weidman and Danielle Hebling.
“Danielle didn’t get a lot of time all year, and she was the loudest girl on our bench tonight,” Bassler said of the Fall Crowns winner. “There’s a girl who took her shots when she was able to get into matches, and she just supported them. That kind of character is unbelievable to watch.”
The Fall Crowns award is given to a student-athlete based on character, leadership and other intangibles.
“It’s her dedication, it’s her character, it’s her supporting the team, and it’s the person you are,” Bassler said. “That helps almost as much as the players on the court sometimes.”
According to the Pathers’ coach, this year’s squad elected to forego attending Powder Puff football practices, a sign that the culture of the program may be changing.
“Every year I give them the option, and every year the girls go to Powder Puff practice and come to volleyball practice afterwards,” Bassler said. “This group said, ‘Absolutely not. We are not going to Powder Puff until our season is over. Volleyball comes first. This is what we care about.’
“I hope that rubs off because this is the kind of program we always wanted. This is what we wanted to instill in the girls, but we wanted them to own it and make their own decisions. We had a bus full of our jayvee team travel out there with us, and I hope the freshman and returning players see what it means to get to this level.
“This was the type of team you want to leave with them because it’s going to be heartbreaking coaching and being out there without them when you have such a special team that cares so much.”
#6 GARNET VALLEY 3, #11 PENNSBURY 1 (25-21, 25-14, 16-25, 25-22)
The Falcons walked away from the match against the sixth-seeded Jaguars believing they should have won.
“In my opinion, we were the better team,” coach Michael Falter said. “They were a good team. They play good defense, but offensively, we outmatched them big time.
“We beat ourselves. We had too many errors.”
The Falcons, according to Falter, had 30 hitting errors, 13 service errors and eight ball handling errors for a total of 51 errors in four games.
“The first game we went up 6-1, and it all slowly fell apart in games one and two,” Falter said. “We weren’t disciplined, we weren’t doing the little things that we knew we needed to do to win.
“We gave up too many runs, and we didn’t play our best in games one and two, and then in game three we wanted to turn it on. We turned it on game three.
“Game four was a back and forth game, and by that time, we’d already dug ourselves a hole we couldn’t get out of.”
Ava Patterson led the Falcons with 12 kills to go along with 12 digs. Lauren Bransfield had 10 kills, and Brandi Steiner added nine. Senior Cara Reilly had six kills to go along with 11 digs, and Taylor McCartney had five kills. Dagny Gould led the Falcons defensively with 14 digs, and setter Kelsey Ongradi had 37 assists.
“We didn’t better the ball the ball at all tonight,” Falter said. “I don’t mind getting beat by teams that beat you, but when you lose to a team that you really believe you’re better than and didn’t play well to end your season, that’s a tough one to swallow.”
Falter bids farewell to senior starters Reilly, McCartney and Ongradi.
“We were fairly young,” Falter said. “We have a really good group of juniors and sophomores coming up, and it’s going to be exciting the next couple of years, but it was that great combination of veteran and youth this year that I thought would really help, but we just fell short at the end unfortunately.”
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