Upper Dublin rallied from a 2-1 deficit to defeat District 12 champion Archbishop Ryan 3-2 in Tuesday’s opening round of the PIAA 5A State Tournament. Game photos provided courtesy of Jon Sklut. Check back for a gallery of photos.
PIAA 5A State Tournament opening round
#1-1 UPPER DUBLIN 3, #12-1 ARCHBISHOP RYAN 2 (16-25, 25-19, 22-25, 25-18, 15-6)
They just keep rewriting history.
In what is becoming a season of firsts, the Cardinals won the program’s first ever home state tournament game, edging their visitors in an emotionally charged match.
“There were a lot of different emotions,” UD coach Paul Choi said. “First time hosting states, we had a packed crowd, and I think that had something to do with it.
“I’ve got to give Ryan a lot of credit. They played phenomenal defense. They did not make it easy, which we didn’t expect them to, but it was very difficult for us at certain points until we kind of wore them down a little bit. We’ve been in these five setters before, so it was a familiar place, and then we turned it on when we absolutely needed them to.”
Early on, things didn’t look all that promising when Ryan opened up a 2-1 lead.
“We tried to settle their nerves a little bit, we try to stack positive plays, and it’s just constantly cleaning up things, playing for each other, one point at a time,” Choi said.
The Cardinals rallied to win the fourth set and then rolled to a 15-6 in the winner-take-all fifth set.
“The stats tell a different story today,” Choi said. “It looks good on paper, but they were very scrappy. It was not pretty.
“In the first set, I think we gave them 12 points on unforced errors. We were playing a little catchup.”
If there was a catalyst for the Cards, it came on the defensive end.
“Alisa (Zeng) was outstanding,” Choi said. “Ellie Cheifetz came in and played great minutes. She got great digs, great timely plays.”
Zeng led the defense with 38 digs while Kate DeMartile had 23 and Cheifetz (15 digs). DiMartile’s 24-kill effort led the Cards, who got 19 kills from Izzy Driehuis and 14 from Casey Calvano.
The match included its share of errors by both sides, but when it mattered most, the Cardinals came through when it mattered most.
By the numbers: Upper Dublin: Alisa Zeng (38 digs), Casey Calvano (14 kills, 13 digs), Ellie Cheifetz (15 digs), Eva Hutchman (2 kills, 14 assists), Izzy Driehuis (19 kills), Kate DiMartile (24 kills, 4 aces, 23 digs), Madeline Barry (5 kills, 6 digs), Parker Levin (13 digs).
Up next: Upper Dublin will face District 11 champion Southern Lehigh, which was a 3-0 winner over District 1’s fourth place team.
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