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HOLLAND – Scott Hibbs shouldn’t be surprised if he has trouble finding takers when he tries to find an opponent for his Council Rock South volleyball team’s annual Dig Pink match to promote Breast Cancer Awareness.
Last year, the Golden Hawks picked up their first ever win over neighboring Council Rock North on Dig Pink night.
In this year’s Dig Pink night on Thursday, Rock South topped that, stunning defending National Conference champion Pennsbury 3-2 (25-8, 20-25, 25-22, 22-25, 15-7).“It’s the first time since I’ve been on the team the past four years that we’ve even taken a game from Pennsbury,” senior Carrie Allen said.
To say the win was a dream come true for Rock South’s players might be an understatement.
“I said to Hibbs last week – if we only beat one team, I would want it to be Pennsbury because we never had beaten them since I was on the team, and I wanted to beat them so bad,” Allen said. “To me, this was absolutely huge.
“This clearly made my week. This might be the highlight of my entire high school volleyball career. It’s completely awesome.”
The Falcons not only looked different wearing pink, they played different than the team that is usually wearing orange and black.
“Orange and black are pretty intimidating colors,” Carrie Allen said. “I don’t know if that was it or not, but I do know in the past that no matter what our ability level was we played down.
“Tonight was the first time we haven’t done that. Maybe it was the t-shirts.”
Pennsbury co-captain Paige Hensor wasn’t about to blame the pink shirts for her team’s woes.
“They get pumped every year for this because it’s a big event and a great fund raiser,” she said of the Dig Pink. “They get pumped up, and it helped them a lot.
“We have never done the Dig Pink thing. It’s a different environment. We definitely didn’t play to our potential at all.”
There were early signs of trouble for the Falcons, who watched the Golden Hawks sprint to a 4-0 lead after a Chelsea Allen kill from the middle.
Still, it was early and hardly seemed like cause for concern, but the Falcons never could pull it together in game one. The Hawks led 8-1 after a Falcon rotation error, and that lead ballooned to 12-4 after a Kelsey Glover kill.
“We came out on fire,” Chelsea Allen said. “They couldn’t do anything right, and we did everything right. We played defense really well – the best I’ve ever seen us play, and we served in. We did the little things we needed to do.”
Rock South’s lead grew to 19-6 after a Glover kill caught the tape and fell in for a winner, and a monster block by Chelsea Allen in the middle made it a 20-6 game. Allen led the Golden Hawks with 14 kills and six blocks out of the middle.“They’re a very good team,” she said. “I was hoping to get up on time and make sure I gave my defense a chance to line up. That’s a big momentum shift when you block someone like that, and it’s always a confidence booster.”
The Panthers used kills by Hensor and Drew Jolly to make it a 20-8 game, but five consecutive Falcon miscues gave the Golden Hawks the huge 25-8 win.
“I don’t know,” Hensor said. “I think we all got hyped on sugar and then crashed. I don’t even know how to explain it, but it was a horrendous game.
“I don’t know what it was. We weren’t messing up because of our defense or anything like that. It was all mental today. They got in our heads – everything got to us, and it went downhill from there.”
In game two, the Falcons opened up a quick 3-0 lead on to watch the Golden Hawks rally to go on top 6-3 after a Chelsea Allen block. The Falcons regained their composure and opened up a 16-13 lead after a Rock South hit out of play, but the Golden Hawks came back to knot the score 18-18.
A Jolly kill sparked a three-point Falcon run that included an Audrey Stringer kill to put Pennsbury on top 21-18. The Hawks would get no closer than two points the rest of the way.
Game three was another war.
The Falcons led 6-3 after a Hensor service ace, but the Golden Hawks knotted the score after a Falcon hit out of play. A Molly Phillips kill put the Falcons on top 14-12, and they still led 16-13 after a Stringer block, but the Golden Hawks came roaring back.
A Glover kill was followed by a Carrie Allen ace, knotting the score 16-16, and the Hawks led 19-16 after another Glover kill. Allen delivered another ace to give Rock South a four-point edge, and they never looked back, rolling to a 25-22 win.
“Tonight our team showed a lot of mental toughness,” Carrie Allen said. “Sometimes we get down in a game and we stay down, but tonight we did a lot better at picking up our energy. We stopped making errors and came back like the team that started the match.”
In game four, the Falcons opened up an 8-5 lead only to watch the Golden Hawks go on top 9-8. It was a back-and-forth affair with the final tie coming at 20-20. Back-to-back Jolly kills put the Falcons on top 23-20, and they won it on a Phillips’ kill.
The Golden Hawks opened up a quick 3-1 lead in the winner-take-all fifth game and still led 5-3 after a Chelsea Allen kill. The Falcons knotted the score, but Katelyn Glover delivered a kill to put the Golden Hawks on top 6-5, and they never looked back.They led 10-5 after a Kelsey Glover kill and upped that advantage to 13-6 after a Mary Kate Tucker service ace. They won it on Kelsey Glover’s tape kill.
“They played really well with pink on today, which was pretty awesome,” Rock South coach Scott Hibbs said. “We didn’t have a very good practice last night, and Tuesday night, we got beat by St. Pius, which wasn’t a really good effort on our part.
“We talked about focusing on the little things and doing the little things right and not worrying about the outcome.
“I was pleased that they didn’t back down. Sometimes they got their backs up against the wall, and they fought back. They showed a lot of integrity and character tonight.”
For Hibbs, who played for Pennsbury coach Tim Paulson, the win was especially significant.
“It’s a huge win for our program,” he said. “I think it’s the first time I have beaten Pennsbury, and I know it’s the first time the girls ever have. It’s a big first for the program.
“It’s pretty awesome, especially since it’s always special to beat your former coach as well. He has been such a great mentor all these years, and I’m glad we’re still friends.”
Paulson acknowledged he has seen a shift in his team ever since its monster win over Council Rock North.
“The day after that – it seemed like we lost an edge,” he said. “There was a drop-off in intensity in practices, a drop-off in intensity in games. (This) wasn’t a huge surprise to me.
“What matters is how they rebound. We got the big wake-up call. The championship is over, but I still believe we have the talent to go deep in the playoffs, but do we have the commitment and attitude? We’ll see if they’re hungry again.”
Hensor believes the Falcons will come back strong.
“It’s tough, but we definitely have to bounce back from it,” she said. “We can’t let it get to us. It’s in the past. We can’t change it.”
NOTES: While Chelsea Allen led the Hawks, Kelsey Glover added eight kills and three aces. Katelyn Glover had five kills, one ace and one block, and Chelsea Leno had three kills and one ace…For the Falcons, Hensor had 28 digs in a standout defensive effort. She also had four aces. Jolly had a game-high 15 kills but may have suffered a concussion near the end of game four when she delivered the defensive play of the night – an impossible diving dig save that the Falcons turned into a point. Phillips had 10 kills while Stringer had eight kills and no hitting errors. She had the Falcons’ only block.
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