Four SOL teams advanced to Tuesday’s District One semifinals.
#1 PENNRIDGE 3, #8 CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 0 (25-14-, 25-14, 25-12)
The top-seeded Rams began their quest for a district title with a sweep of Continental Conference rival Central Bucks East in a quarterfinal match.
Senior setter Bradley Nase had 30 assists and three kills. Max McVaugh led the defense with 14 digs. Ben Chinnici paced a balanced Ram attack with 11 kills and three aces. Josiah Friesen had seven kills and two blocks while Henry Savage had six kills, three blocks and three aces. Senior Devon Rice had three kills, eight digs, four aces and three blocks. Jesse Smith had eight digs, and Aaron Nelson added three kills and two blocks.
Making contributions for the Patriots were Chris Woolslayer (four kills, three digs), Shawn Malone (three kills), Mason Miller (12 sets, one dig), Jake Staub (two kills, two digs) and Henry Mallison (two kills, two digs)
Central Bucks East closed out its season with a 12-8 record (9-7 SOL).
Pennridge (17-0) will face fifth-seeded North Penn in a district semifinal match on Tuesday at Upper Dublin High School at 7:30 p.m.
#2 COUNCIL ROCK NORTH 3, #7 PENNSBURY 1 (25-19, 25-21, 23-25, 28-26)
The Indians and Falcons found themselves locked in yet another classic battle, and it was the Indians coming away with the hard fought win over their conference rival in Thursday’s quarterfinal match at Council Rock North.
"Our team survived tonight's quarterfinal matchup that was anything but a quarterfinal matchup,” Rock North coach Greg Marchetti said. “This match was an emotional roller-coaster for both teams, and we were fortunate to come up on the positive side.
“Both teams had support from loyal fans and that made for an amazing environment for high school volleyball."
With the Indians holding a 2-1 lead in sets, the Falcons had a 22-21 lead in the fourth set and appeared poised to even the match only to watch the Indians reel off three straight point to go on top 24-22. The Falcons knotted the score, but the Indians went on to win the set as well as the match.
“I am very proud of the progress that my team made from the offseason to now,” Pennsbury coach Justin Fee said. “We had only one player (David Levey) with any varsity experience from last season and came into the season like a JV team.
“It is always hard to lose, but the other coaches and I feel we made great strides with our young players, and with the right dedication and every player playing together in the offseason, we can come back even stronger next season.”
Rock North setter Logan Fuglestad had 24 assists to go along with 19 digs. Eric Van Thuyne led the defense with 26 digs. Will Stollsteimer (15 kills, 15 digs) and Josh Hinton (11 kills, 18 digs) had big nights both offensively and defensively. Will Desautelle had nine kills, three digs and two blocks, and Jason Yakimiv added seven kills, one dig and one assist. Nick Reich contributed four kills, two blocks and three digs. Dalton Abrahamsen added 14 assists, five digs and one ace while Sean Lyon had four kills, two blocks and one dig.”
The Indians will face another familiar opponent in Tuesday’s semifinal match at Upper Dublin when they take on a William Tennent squad that swept the two regular season matches between the two schools, winning both in five sets.
"After tonight's match, our coaching staff is excited to have the opportunity to compete against another SOL rival in William Tennent,” Marchetti said. “We look forward to our next point on Tuesday evening and look to build on the playoff experience that was gained in tonight's big win."
The Falcons, who finished third in the National Conference behind William Tennent and Rock North, saw their season come to an end earlier than usual.
“One of our goals as coaches was to get our program heading back into the dominant winning direction,” Fee said. “Although not quite there yet, we feel we are possibly on our way there.
“This season was a great learning experience for many players that will be returning next season. Volleyball is a game that takes a lot of dedication and playing experience to become great. I expect our returning players next year to capitalize on their ups and downs and, in return, play more like savvy veteran players in 2016.
In Thursday’s match, Sean Sweeney (18 kills, .296, 11 digs, one blocks) and David Levey (17 kills, 15 digs, three blocks) led the Falcons at the net. Setter Kevin Killoran was credited with 47 assists to go along with two kills, 17 digs and one block. Coming up big defensively were Brad Edwards (17 digs, one assist) and Josh Leon (14 digs, eight kills, two assists, one block). Kenny Hickman (five kills, one ace, one dig, four blocks) and Mason Reilley (two kills, one dig, one block) also contributed.
“Players like Sean Sweeney, Kevin Killoran, Brad Edwards, Mason Reilley, and Kenny Hickman have greatly progressed throughout the season and hopefully will get us back to the top of the SOL National and District One,” Fee said. “We have a talented group of underclassmen (JV players) that will be able fight for a spot at replacing senior opposite David Levey and outside hitter Josh Leon.
“Sophomore Sean Sweeney made first team all-SOL National and led our team tonight in kills and hitting efficiency. He also added 15 digs. Sean has been our go-to player towards the latter part of the season and has great overall skills. I am excited to see the player he will eventually turn into.
“Senior David Levey made second team all SOL National while junior setter Kevin Killoran made third team All-SOL National. Kevin has really come along towards the end of the season and has potential to be that setter/leader we need to guide us next year. Pennsbury has had nine different starting setters since 2004, and seven out of nine setters (Kevin included in the nine) made the All-State team within their careers. We are hoping Kevin can be our next.
“Starting junior middle hitter Mason Reilley has been playing volleyball for only five months (he was a baseball player up until January when he decided to make the switch to volleyball) and is now beginning to see success at the varsity level.
“As always, I am sad and disappointed to see a season end without a championship of any sort, but I am hopeful and optimist that continued hard work will bring brighter days to our program. My message to our team was that a great winning culture and tradition is not just given to you every year. It is continually earned through hard work in season and out of season, ultimately putting in time to the sport we all love. Sooner or later it will all pay off.”
#3 WILLIAM TENNENT 3, #6 QUAKERTOWN 0 (25-17, 25-15, 25-20)
It would have been easy to understand if Tennent’s players had a little added motivation when Quakertown came calling on Thursday in a district quarterfinal match. After all, Quakertown had handed the Panthers a 3-1 defeat on March 27.
“I don’t know if we wanted another chance at them,” said Tennent coach Jim Creighton, whose team had an opening round bye. “I think we were just ready to get in playoff mode and ready to play anybody that was put in front of us.
“It was an advantage because we’d seen them before, and we saw them play Abington Tuesday. We had a good idea of what they brought to the table, and it was just a matter of our execution.”
Tennent rolled to a sweep of its visitors, never giving Quakertown much of a chance.
“Basically, I think it came down to serving and passing, which is cliché to say, but we served really well tonight, and we passed really well tonight,” Creighton said. “Kyle Lewicki, our setter, did a great job running our offense.
“We just didn’t have that many errors. We played really clean, which is something we’re trying to do now that we’re in the playoffs.”
Lewiciki finished with 27 assists to go along with two aces and one block. Jake Milnazik had 19 kills, one ace, six digs and one block. Tom Del Conte added three kills, one ace and three blocks, and Will Towle had six kills and four digs. Logan Sklut had one ace and five digs.
“Our sophomore middle – Brendan Carter – did a great job tonight,” Creighton said. “He got a lot of touches blocking. He had six kills.
“It’s tough for younger players to come into that playoff atmosphere, but he responded really well.”
For the Panthers (15-5, 12-4 SOL), Dylan Flor (eight kills), Lucas Schan (seven kills) and Mike Dierolf (five kills) led the attack. Setter Xavier Villanueva had 21 assists.
Tennent is coming off a regular season that saw the team capture its first conference title since 2008.
“We try to be in the mix with the Pennsburys, the Council Rocks, and Neshaminy was really good last year,” Creighton said. “We just want to try and stay in the mix.
“Even the third place in our league is still a really good team, no matter what year you’re in.”
Tennent will face conference rival Rock North in Tuesday’s district semifinal at Upper Dublin High School (6 p.m.).
“The second time we played them – they basically blew us out of the water the first two games, but somehow we came back,” Creighton said. “It will be interesting. We see those guys all year long.
“We know a lot of them from club season, so we’ve got a pretty good rivalry going on. At this point, we’re trying to win one of our next two games to get into states.”
#5 NORTH PENN 3, #4 AVON GROVE (25-21, 25-21, 25-19)
Although the Knights were seeded fifth and the Red Devils fourth, it wasn’t exactly an upset when the Knights rolled to a sweep of their hosts, earning the win in less time than it took to make the trek to Avon Grove.
If the Knights looked like a team with a point to prove, they were.
“A two-hour bus ride contributed to that as well,” coach Tim Moyer said. “I think the theme was to make the game shorter than the bus ride, that’s for sure.
“I think this highlighted the weak point of the power rankings. They play a team like Upper Dublin in our conference that doesn’t make playoffs and Upper Dublin beats them, and somehow they’re seeded ahead of us. Avon Grove’s only loss was to Upper Dublin.”
Long bus ride aside, the Knights are exactly where they want to be – one win away from a berth in the state tournament, and Moyer pointed to his seniors as the catalysts.
“Mark Elias, my senior captain, is a three-year captain for me, which is fairly unheard of,” the Knights’ coach said. “It’s nice having Mark. He’s always steady Eddie. We know we can always count on him to do whatever we need him to do.
“I think he took over for his brother (Matt Elias) and has had it ever since. I’ve been very lucky to coach those guys during my ride here at North Penn.”
In Thursday’s match, Elias had 33 assists to go along with 14 digs, three solo blocks and three aces, but he wasn’t the only senior to come up big. Jake Walters had 18 kills, five digs, six blocks and one ace, and Connor Sloan had 16 kills, eight digs and two aces.
“Jake Walters did another fantastic job in the middle tonight,” Moyer said. “Tim Dickinson had a ton of digs.
“We saw Avon Grove in the Haverford Tournament, but we haven’t seen them since. We have no scouting or information.
“We started picking up on certain patterns they were doing – they started getting a lot of tips from certain players. Tim did a nice job of adjusting to that.
“Connor had a huge night hitting for us. With four seniors leading the charge – they don’t want to done.”
If there was a pivotal point in the match it came in the second set after the Red Devils opened up a 10-point lead.
“We came out firing and then gave away a couple of easy points and kind of took our foot off the gas in game one,” Moyer said. “We ho-hummed it to game two, and all of a sudden we’re down 10.
“I called a timeout and said, ‘Let’s relax. We’re fine.’ After that, my seniors started talking and taking charge. We went from down 10, and we won 25-21. Connor had three or four real big kills in a row. Mark had a huge stuff block on their big lefty opposite. All of sudden, we got some digs, and Jake was catching fire in the middle, and we couldn’t be stopped when the train started rolling.
“Avon Grove didn’t go away. They played scrappy. Their libero did a nice job. He picked up some balls and passed pretty well. I thought their setter did a nice job.”
Tim Dickinson added eight kills and 12 digs, and he has been a welcome addition to the team after spending his junior year as an exchange student in Germany.
“He had been our libero as a sophomore,” Moyer said. “He’s just an absolutely amazing passer and defender.
“He’s really stepped up for us because for the most part he played libero. I thought our lineup was stronger with him as an outside hitter. He just has great ball control, and he’s smart as a hitter. In big moments, he’s had a lot of big kills for us this year.
“The seniors really stepped up for us tonight. Connor kind of led the way offensively, and everyone else got involved. They decided they didn’t want to be there for too long.”
North Penn will face top-seeded Pennridge in a semifinal match Tuesday at Upper Dublin (8:30 p.m.).
“I’d like to take a game off of Pennridge to start with and then we’ll see what happens from there,” Moyer said. “At least we have two matches next week either way.”
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