Souderton and Pennridge will square off in Thursday’s District One AAA title game. To view photos of the Souderton/Pennsbury and Pennridge/Dock games, please visit the Photo Gallery.
#3 SOUDERTON 3, #2 PENNSBURY 2 (25-21, 24-26, 25-17, 22-25, 15-13)
WARMINSTER – Justin Fee knows volleyball potential when he sees it, and the Pennsbury coach liked what he saw in Ryan Davison as a ninth grader just learning the sport.
“I taught him in ninth grade gym and had a chance to be around him for a long time,” the Falcons’ coach said. “He’s a very, very hard working kid, and I knew he had a nice future with volleyball.”
Unfortunately for Fee, that future wasn’t at Pennsbury. As a sophomore, Davison moved to Souderton.
“I wanted to make sure when he left that he definitely stuck with volleyball,” Fee said.
Davison not only stuck with volleyball, the Souderton junior came back to haunt the Falcons in Tuesday’s District One AAA semifinal match, delivering a team-high 19 kills and effectively silencing the Falcon fans who had some good-natured fun at Davison’s expense.
“One of their chants was, ‘We don’t need you,’ but I think they could have used him tonight,” Souderton coach Brad Garrett said. “Ryan played the match of the year so far. I hope he continues to grow and develop because he was unstoppable in the middle tonight.”
Souderton’s middles – Davison and Chris Kluka (18 kills) – were the difference in Tuesday’s match. The duo combined for 37 kills.
“We didn’t have much of an answer,” Fee said. “Part of it is we’re used to practicing against fast tempo all the time, and we were jumping early. We’re already a little undersized, and we weren’t slowing the ball down.
“Our goal is to slow the ball down so we can run our offense, and it needed to be spot on timing for that to happen.”
Garrett acknowledged that the Indians’ game plan was to attack the Falcons from the middle.
“Pennsbury’s defense tries to funnel everything to their libero,” the Indians’ coach said of Troy Pereira. “We were trying to get our middle to be able to turn it back to the other side of the court away from their libero because he’s a really solid player and pretty much gets anything up.
“Our strategy was to turn the ball away from him, and Ryan and Kluka were able to do it because they have such great reach, and that really was the difference in the game.”
For his part, Davison called Tuesday night’s match against his former teammates a ‘grudge match,’ but he said it with a smile.
“I love those guys,” he said. “Joe Yasalonis got me started in volleyball, and it felt terrific to do as well as I did against them. It was definitely a sweet victory for me.”
The Indians have earned a date with neighboring Pennridge in Thursday’s district title match at William Tennent (7:30 p.m.). It is the first time they have reached the district title game in five years.
“It feels awesome, especially because we went to five games, so it’s an even better story to tell,” Kluka said.
It looked like the Indians might be in trouble when – after winning game one – they opened up a 24-17 lead in game two but let it slip away. The Falcons’ comeback began with a Sean Kropp kill that brought Jeff Yasalonis to the service line.
The sophomore setter opened his dazzling service run with back-to-back aces just inside the end line. It was a 24-23 game after a Kropp block, prompting Garrett to call a quick timeout.
Not a whole lot changed.
Kropp delivered a line kill out of the timeout to knot the score. Yasalonis followed with another service ace, and the Falcons won it when an Indian hit sailed out of play.
“Without that comeback, it wouldn’t have been a five-game match,” Fee said. “That was a very, very crucial point, and you know what – he’s done something like that earlier this year, maybe not in such a high profile match, but I have seen him jump serve 12 points in a row. He has very good control of his serve, and he’s only a sophomore. I’m hoping he gets a little more whip on it and becomes devastating.”
With the match even at 1-1, the Indians came out like a team with a point to prove in the third set, opening up a quick 8-3 lead after a Davison block in the middle.
“We just kept cheering each other on and tried to lift each other up,” Davison said. “Our coach really had a lot to do with that. He was trying to keep us positive the whole entire time. I just kept telling my teammates, ‘It’s do or die. It’s do or die.’ Almost every year we end up losing in the semifinals, and we weren’t going to have it this time. “
The Indians still led 17-12 after an Andrew Diesel kill, and a Davison kill made it a 19-13 game. A Luke Burns service ace put the Indians on top 24-16, and they won it when Matt Wittig delivered a kill for game point.
According to Kluka, it wasn’t hard for the Indians to pick themselves up after dropping a game they appeared to have won.
“I feel like that happens to us all the time,” the Indians’ junior middle said. “The next game we just wanted it more, and we showed it out there. It’s tough, but you have to keep pushing yourself, and you have to keep going.”
Down but not out, the Falcons battled back in game four. They trailed 7-5 after a Gabe Clemmer service ace and still trailed 10-7 after a Davison kill. They rallied to knot the score 12-12 after back-to-back kills by Neil Helsel and Pat Merrick, and it was a 17-17 game after a Dalton Zimmerman kill after a quick set.
The two teams were still deadlocked 21-21, but three consecutive Kropp kills put the Falcons on top 24-21. Kluka interrupted the run with a kill, but the Falcons went on to win it on a Souderton hit out of play.
“They’re a well-coached team,” Garrett said “When you get to this stage of the district tournament, you know every game is going to be a dog fight, so we were ready for it.
“They really played well defensively and did a great job blocking, but in the end, I thought our guys stepped up when they needed to.”
In the pivotal fifth game, the Falcons led 4-3 after a Chris Spano kill, but Davison answered for the Indians. A Falcon hit out of play was followed by another Davison winner, and the Indians led 6-4. They led 9-6 after a Kluka kill, but the Falcons rallied to knot the score, sparked by a pair of Kropp kills.
Kluka broke the tie with a kill, but Helsel answered with a kill for the Falcons to knot the score 10-10. A Davison kill put the Indians on top by one, and when Diesel delivered a kill, the Indians had a 12-10 advantage. They led 14-11 after a Davison kill and appeared to have it won when Davison slammed down another kill. Their celebration was put on hold when the official ruled that Davison had touched the net.
“I just ripped it as hard as I could,” Davison said. “I swear to god I didn’t touch the net. I was so shocked.”
The reprieve was only a temporary one for the Falcons, whose serve out of play gave the Indians match point and the emotional win.
“It’s been 07 since we played in the district final,” Garrett said. “We have been that second tier just trying to work our way to the final and get that good seed for states, so it feels good to get past this. These guys have worked hard, and they deserve it.
“I was proud of our guys. They showed a lot of maturity. It’s good to see us growing and playing our best at the end of the year.”
Diesel added 15 kills and two blocks for the Indians, and Tim Jones had five kills to go along with 14 digs. Greg Mazza led the defense with 14 digs while setter Gabe Clemmer had 51 assists and seven digs. Davison also had five blocks, and for the junior middle, this was a breakout performance.
“He played phenomenal,” Kluka said of Davison. “I’m so happy. He showed up when it counted, gave everything, just proved himself and was doing everything.”
Kropp led the Falcons with 19 kills and a .372 hitting efficiency. Merrick added 16 kills, Zimmerman, 11 kills and Helsel, seven kills. Merrick also had three blocks and three aces while Zimmerman had four blocks. Spano led the defense with 17 digs while Pereira had 16 digs and Jeff Yasalonis, 12 digs and four aces.
The Falcons will face Christopher Dock in Thursday’s 6 p.m. consolation game at William Tennent.
#1 PENNRIDGE 3, #5 CHRISTOPHER DOCK 0 (25-19, 25-14, 25-18)
WARMINSTER – The Pioneers – with a large contingent of fans cheering their every move – came into Thursday’s semifinal fired up and undoubtedly dreaming of pulling off the upset. For one game, the fifth-seeded Pioneers kept things interesting, but in the end, the Rams had just too many weapons.
“Being the number one seed and going undefeated in the regular season, we expect teams to give us their best game,” Pennridge senior Derek Rush said. “I think we’re used to that by now.”
The Rams are not only used to it, they are completely unfazed by it, going about their business like a team on a mission, and they got what they were looking for – an opportunity to play for another district title.
“This means a lot to us because we want to win the district, but we also want to keep our season going into states and try and go as far into that as we can,” Rush said. “We have five seniors, and a lot of us have played together in different sports.
“We have chemistry. We all get just along really well, and we’re all in it for the team, and that adds to the chemistry too.”
In game one, setter Austin McVaugh delivered a dump for a winner on the first rally of the night, and the Rams were off and running. They led 3-0 after a tape ace by Christian Lizana. The Pioneers made it a 4-3 game after a Darren Moyer kill, but the Rams went back on top 6-3 after a Kalin Nelson kill.
Again, the Pioneers battled back, cutting that lead to 6-5 after a Nathan Landis kill. The score was knotted 11-11 after a Pennridge hit out of play, but an Erik Moyer block at the net put the Rams back on top.
The Pioneers took a 13-12 lead after a Landis kill, but Moyer singlehandedly gave the Rams some much-needed momentum, delivering back-to-back kills and following that with consecutive blocks to put the Rams on top 16-13. It was a 17-14 game after a Ryan Chinnici kill, but the Pioneers refused to go away, trimming that lead to 17-16. A Nelson kill ignited a 4-0 Ram run to make it a 21-16 game. The Pioneers never threatened the rest of the way.
Game two belonged to the Rams. They sprinted to a quick 9-1 lead and led 20-9 after back-to-back blocks by Moyer. The Rams coasted to the 25-14 win.
Game three was competitive early on, but the Rams opened up an 18-12 lead after a Chinnici block. They led 23-15 after a Nelson service ace capped a four-point service run. Rush closed it out by slamming home a kill for match point.
“I feel like tonight Austin (McVaugh) set really well, and he was spreading the ball around well,” Rush said. “I think our biggest thing was blocking.
“In our second game, we blocked them really well, and when we block well, it makes our whole defense a lot better. I think that was our biggest key for tonight – our big blocking and Austin set really well.”
Moyer led the Rams with eight blocks to go along with 11 kills. Nelson had 12 kills, four blocks and two aces while Chinnici had five kills and three blocks. Rush had six kills.
“We played well at the net,” Pennridge coach Dave Childs said. “Even when we didn’t get stuff blocks, we forced them to go around us, and we were able to set up our defense. That really helped us.”
The Rams, who upped their record to a perfect 15-0, are just one win away from another district crown. They were the district runner-up in 2011 after winning the district title in 2010.
“We’re the one seed, we had a good regular season, and we want to finish it off strong with a district title,” Childs said. “We lost it last year, and we want to be back there to win it this year.
“Last year aside, they’re just motivated this year. They know we have a really good team, and that was our goal from the beginning of the year to win a district title. That was the goal at the beginning of last year, but we just fell a little bit short. We came back hungry this year.”
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