The Upper Merion volleyball team advanced to Saturday’s PIAA Class AAA quarterfinal round, thanks to the Vikings’ 3-1 win over West Chester Henderson Tuesday.
UPPER MERION 3, 1-4 WEST CHESTER HENDERSON 1 (25-18, 25-7, 23-25, 25-17)
NORRISTOWN – West Chester Henderson was making things too easy.
“Honestly, you lose your competitive edge when they make it easy,” Upper Merion coach Tony Funsten said after watching his team roll to wins in the first two sets of Tuesday’s night’s PIAA Class AAA opener against the Warriors but then struggle in the third. “You serve the ball over the net, and they botch it. You serve and they botch it. There’s no give and take, so you can’t get better.
“So when they start to get better and play the way they’re capable of playing, whoa – you have to recover from that. Volleyball is momentum.”
And the Vikings lost their momentum in the third set, but that did little more than extend a match that Upper Merion pretty much owned from start to finish.
“(In the fourth set), the three points from 14-14 to 17-14 were miraculous,” Funsten said. “I don’t think our setter set the ball in that sequence, but we got kills because people stepped in and started making plays.
“That’s what we count on.”
That pivotal three-point stretch in the fourth set included a winner by Carlye Odorisio, a Warrior hit in the net and a Melanie Ingram kill. That mini-run broke a 14-14 tie – the eighth and final tie of the set, and the Vikings never looked back. They led 21-14 after a service ace, and although the Warriors made it a 23-17 game, they never threatened. The Vikings won it when Niki Carpenter delivered an ace for match point.
Carpenter accounted for three of the Vikings’ 12 service aces on the night. She also had five blocks. Ingram led the Vikings with 18 kills, 11 digs and three aces. Emily Shannon had nine kills, 28 digs and two aces, and Ashley Shannon had 16 digs, six kills and three aces. Odorisio had 15 assists. Eryn Brady had nine kills, and libero Kailyn McNamee had a team-high 30 digs to go along with one ace.
“We really work on serving well,” said McNamee. “We’re a really good serving team, and when we get back there, we just try and focus and stay calm.
“My friend Ashley said you have to think you’re at practice and nobody is there, so you’re not as nervous.”
McNamee admitted that the Vikings may have thought it would be an early night after picking up decisive wins in the first two sets.
“Sometimes I feel like automatically since we have Mel, who’s a great outside hitter, that we’re going to gain points,” the Vikings’ junior libero said. “Then I realize when they actually fight back, we have to stay more focused.
“Mr. Funsten said in the huddle that even though we beat them by a lot, they always can come back, so it was kind of a letdown.”
In many ways, Tuesday’s match mirrored last Thursday’s district semifinal match that saw the Vikings win the first two sets but drop the third before rallying to win the fourth.
Despite his team’s dominance in that semifinal match, Funsten thought his team would be in for a battle on Tuesday.
“I expected it to be closer,” the Vikings’ coach said. “Hey, they were seeded fifth (in the district). They had a great season, and they played competitively against all the best teams in the district.
“I just felt they were going to make some adjustments, and they did.”
The Vikings will face District 11 champion Southern Lehigh in Saturday’s quarterfinal round.
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