Upper Merion upset District 3 champion Cumberland Valley in Thursday night’s PIAA Class AAA opening round.
(1-3) Upper Merion 3, (3-1) Cumberland Valley 2 (15-25, 28-26, 25-27, 25-20, 15-13)
The story of Thursday night’s state tournament opener was, according to coach Tony Funsten, the Vikings’ grit.
“We just wouldn’t lose the match,” the Vikings’ coach said. “There were times when we didn’t look very good, but we just kept coming and coming and coming.
“We gave away the third game – we should have won that game, but they came back and stole it from us. In the fourth game, Mel (Ingram) broke it open with a nice service run, and from there, it went back and forth, back and forth, and we won 25-20.”
That set the stage for a riveting winner-take-all fifth game that saw the Eagles open up an 11-9 lead and then a 13-11 lead.
“I called my last timeout when they went up 13-11,” Funsten said. “Mel was outside, and she had a great hit-the-floor kill. Then Casey Griffith went back and served out the match.
“On two of the points, (setter) Natalie O’Neil had blocks. She’s probably gone months without a block, and she had back-to-back blocks for point 13 and 14. On point 15, Casey hit the top of the net, it went over, and it looked like we had won the point, but someone on their team punched it miraculously over. We had to win the point again. It was amazing.”
The Vikings’ slow start, according to Funsten, could be attributed to his team’s 10 hitting errors in the first set.
“It’s pretty hard to win a match when you have 10 hitting errors,” Funsten said. “We were down 16-15 and ended up losing 25-15.
“It was a nip and tuck game. I think in that nine-point stretch we had five hitting errors, but we recovered from it. We were living on the edge, but we outlasted them 28-26. We didn’t get disheartened when we lost the third game and came out strong in the fourth game. In the fifth game, we just wouldn’t give up.”
Ingram and Griffith both had 21 kills to lead the Vikings at the net. Griffith also had 20 digs while Ingram had 25. O’Neil had 42 assists and 26 digs.
“Twenty-six digs from the setting position is incredible,” Funsten said.
Emily Shannon had 26 digs, and Ashley Shannon added 21 digs.
“They used the whole court,” Funsten said. “They had a good right side, and that’s why our setter had a lot of digs. There were a lot of plays to be made.
“Their setter is 6-2, and when she’s front row, she actually blocks middle and then sets out of the middle. We had to get used to that because she blocked a number of balls in the middle. She was the biggest player on the court by far. When she was front row, she could attack it very nicely. She presented a lot of problems. Everybody played well.”
The Vikings’ big win sets the stage for a rematch against a Downingtown East squad that upset Upper Merion in the district semifinals last Saturday. The state quarterfinal match will be played at Upper Dublin at 1 p.m.
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