Plymouth Whitemarsh and Pennsbury were winners in Thursday’s District One 4A second round.
!-6 PLYMOUTH WHITEMARSH 3, #1-11 PERK VALLEY (25-22, 14-25, 26-24, 13-25 15-13)
The Colonials won a five-set thriller, edging the Vikings in the winner-take-all fifth set after exchanging wins through the first four.
"It was two very evenly matched teams," coach Seely Byler said. "PV has very solid block/deep line shots.
"We were able to serve aggressively and keep them out of system on serve receive. Our team is led by seniors, so the experience helped us push through the swings back and forth throughout the match."
Aja Smith (16 kills, 13 digs) and Lily Acquaviva (11 kills, 21 digs) both delivered double-doubles. Sophia Repholz had 42 digs to lead the defense, and setter Sydney Melillo had 29 assists. Megan Peuser contributed 12 kills and three aces.
Plymouth Whitemarsh (19-1, 17-1 SOL) will travel to Garnet Valley for Saturday’s quarterfinal match.
#1-10 PENNSBURY 3, #1-7 BOYERTOWN 0 (27-25, 28-26, 25-17)
The Falcons – one of four SOL National teams alive in Thursday’s 16-team field - made their long road trip to Boyertown worth their while, gutting out a sweep of the host Bears.
“The entire league beat up on each other, and that was good – it showed we had a pretty strong league,” coach Mike Falter said. “It would have been nice if more of us moved on, but the fact that one-fourth of it was our division – that’s pretty cool.”
The Falcons were ready for everything the Bears threw at them in Thursday’s match.
“We got film on them and we found they were very similar to us in terms of the style that they play,” Falter said. “We had a good game plan.
“The fact that we had so many tough matches in our league – we played a lot of great defensive teams this year. Every team in the league played amazing defense, and that just made us better. Boyertown had some good offensive weapons, but their defense wasn’t as strong as what we’ve seen in our league every night. I think just the tough matches we had in the regular season prepared us more than anything for tonight.”
Elley Torres turned in a glittering performance to lead the Falcons, finishing with 17 kills (.552 hitting percentage), five aces, eight digs and two block assists. Izzy Marinelli was also a force at the net with 12 kills (.526) and one dig. Brooke Burns added five kills, two aces, 14 digs and four block assists. Setter Carissa Van Veen had 33 assists, one ace and nine digs. Abbie Drewes contributed nine digs, two kills and three aces.
The Falcons – who do not have any seniors on their roster – are the definition of a young team. Their starting lineup includes juniors and two sophomores with a sophomore serving specialist.
“We graduated six from last year and had two returning starters – Elley Torres and Brooke Burns, who were sophomores last year,” Falter said. “It’s an exciting group.
“I had no idea how far we’d go. I was hoping to go as far as we can this year just to give these girls as much playoff experience as possible because it will pay off next year when everybody is back and we’re a year older and hopefully a year more developed. I was really hoping to get as many playoff games as possible because – who knows we can make a run this year, but next year it will help us even more.
“We had a favorable matchup. Not that Boyertown wasn’t a tough matchup, but compared to playing a Garnet Valley or Upper Merion, we had a better matchup.”
For the first time ever, Falter did not appoint captains at the beginning of the season.
“We’re such a young team, and I wanted to see how everyone led themselves,” the Falcons’ coach said. “Halfway through the season, we picked two captains – Brooke Burns and Abbie Drewes.
“Brooke Burns is probably the one that keeps everybody together, but everyone is doing a good job of policing themselves, so it’s kind of an easy job for her to do.”
Pennsbury (18-4, 14-4 SOL) will travel to second-seeded Upper Merion on Saturday.
#1-4 DOWNINGTOWN EAST 3, #1-13 CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 0 (25-15, 25-18, 25-22)
The National Conference champions saw a successful season come to an end at the hands of a strong Cougar squad.
Amanda Mass (eight kills, two blocks, two digs) and Mackenzie Brooks (seven kills, 11 digs) led the Bucks’ attack. Setter Ana Claricurzio had 24 assists, 12 digs, two kills and one block. Also contributing were Maddie Corona (five kills), Magda Videva (four kills, two blocks) Naomi Woo (four kills, two blocks) and Grace Manganelli (two aces, one kill, five digs.
The Bucks closed out their season with an 18-6 record (15-3 SOL).
#1-2 UPPER MERION 3, #1-18 COUNCIL ROCK NORTH 0 (25-23, 25-17, 25-7)
The young Indians put up a good fight, but the second-seeded Vikings had too many weapons.
Sophomore Mary Baniewicz led the Indians at the net with 10 kills to go along with three aces and one dig. Freshman Ashleigh Adams had five kills, one ace and eight digs while Kylie Tinner had three kills, five digs and one ace. Cora Lake added two kills. Jill Schweizer had eight kills and one ace, and Ashley Kelly had five digs.
The Indians closed out their season with a 14-8 record (13-5 SOL).
#1-12 DOWNINGTOWN WEST 3, #1-5 HATBORO-HORSHAM 0
#1-3 GARNET VALLEY 3, #1-14 COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 0
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