Pennsbury defeated Emmaus to earn a date against District 3 champion Hempfield in Tuesday’s state semifinal match while Central Bucks West saw its season come to an end.
FRANCONIA TWP – It would have been easy for Pennsbury to concede the first game of Saturday’s PIAA Class AAA quarterfinal game against Emmaus, but that was never a consideration.
Instead the Falcons battled their way back, eventually fighting off game point to eke out a 26-24 win. They went on to earn a 3-0 sweep of the Green Hornets (26-24, 25-16, 25-16) in a match played at Souderton Area High School.
“That was huge,” senior Pat Merrick said of winning the first set. “I was even questioning myself in that first game. I was like, ‘This is going to be a tough match,’ but it just shows the amount of confidence everyone has on the court.
“We’ve all been playing three years of varsity, and when it comes down to that 23-23 point, we’re ready to go. We know what to do and what plays to make.”
In game one, the Green Hornets sprinted to a 7-3 lead. The late arrival of junior setter Jeff Yasalonis, who took the SAT test on Saturday morning, played a definite role in the Falcons’ slow start.
“We were fighting through a little bit of adversity because Jeff showed up right in the middle of our warm-ups,” coach Justin Fee said. “Pat (Merrick) set the beginning of our warm-up and then Jeff came in and took over, so he didn’t get a good warm-up.
“That put me on edge, I’m sure our kids were on edge. It was nice to have them battle through that adversity.”
The Falcons evened the score 9-9 only to watch the Green Hornets open up a 14-11 lead. They still led 18-15 after a net serve by the Falcons, but a block by Yasalonis was followed by a Merrick block and a Sean Kropp kill, knotting the score 18-18.
Emmaus went back on top 21-18, but a Merrick kill and a Merrick/Yasalonis block made it a one-point game. A kill by the Green Hornets upped that lead to two, but Spencer McCullough delivered a kill, and another Pennsbury block knotted the score 22-22.
The Falcons led 23-22 after a Chris Spano kill deep into the opposite corner, but again, the Green Hornets answered, scoring a pair of points to go on top 24-23.
An Emmaus serve out of bounds was followed by back-to-back Neil Helsel kills, and a win was in the books for the Falcons.
“We stole that first game somehow, and it almost took the life out of them,” Fee said. “It just really, really seemed like that.”
In game two, the Falcons sprinted to a 6-2 lead after a Spano kill and stretched that lead to 12-6 after another Spano kill. The Green Hornets would get no closer that four, and Spano closed it out with a kill for set point.
The third set was more of the same. The Falcons turned a 5-4 deficit into a 9-5 lead. They led 17-12 after a Troy Pereira serve was mishandled. The Falcons led 21-13 after back-to-back Spano kills, and they won it when a Green Hornet hit sailed out of play.
“Our hitting consistency has been great,” Fee said. “We’ve been putting the ball away when they know they’re getting set and even when people don’t know they’re getting set. That’s been awesome for us.
“People like Pat (Merrick) have stepped up defensively. It’s unreal the amount of digs that he’s gotten, especially lately in the playoffs. As usual, our middles had a high efficiency and kind of go unnoticed, and Kropp had a great match.”
Spano led the Falcons with 12 kills and four digs. Kropp had 11 kills with a .444 hitting efficiency. He also had one ace and seven digs. Helsel had eight kills on 10 attempts (.800 hitting efficiency) to go along with three blocks. McCullough had six kills on eight attempts (.500 hitting efficiency). He also had one block and one dig.
Yasalonis had 43 assists, five digs, three blocks and one ace, and Merrick had seven kills, a team high 12 digs, four blocks and one assist. Pereira had 10 digs, and defense was once again a key to the Falcons’ big win.
“Defense is a huge thing because our block is not as big as most other teams,” Kropp said. “We really need to work on our blocking.
“We’ve had trouble blocking all three years, so we’ve really stepped up our defense to make up for that. As we improve our blocking, our defense is still improving. We always have a solid defense which helps a lot.”
On Tuesday night, the Falcons will travel to Coatesville High School for a 7 p.m. state semifinal match against Hempfield. Leading the District 3 champion Black Knights is St. Francis-bound senior Garrett Dimm.
“It’s a big deal,” Merrick said of earning a spot in the semis. “I’ll be playing against one of my good friends. He’s an outside hitter, and he’s really good. It will be a goal to shut him down.”
Stay tuned.
[3-1] HEMPFIELD 3, [1-2] CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 2 (25-20, 25-19, 24-26, 25-27, 15-6)
The Bucks saw their most successful season in memory come to an end on Saturday, falling to the District 3 champion Black Knights in a tightly-contested match. According to LancasterOnLine, it is just the third time in coach Mike Vogel’s 16 years at the helm that Hempfield has been extended to five games. They had lost their two preceding five-set matches.
Garrett Dimm was unstoppable for the Black Knights, delivering 36 kills, 14 digs and four aces. Senior Mike Fehrs led the Bucks with 14 kills.
West closed out the year with a 20-4 record and an SOL Continental Conference crown.
To read the entire LancasterOnLine article, please click on the following link: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/856592_Hempfield-turns-tide--beats-Central-Bucks-West-to-secure-semifinal-berth-in-PIAA-boys--volleyball.html
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