Souderton defeated North Penn to capture the title in Saturday’s Quakertown Invitational Tournament. To view photos of the tournament, please visit the Photo Gallery.
Chris Kluka's block for match point in Saturday’s title match against North Penn put the finishing touches on a perfect day for the Indians, who rolled to a 13-0 mark en route to the title in Saturday’s Quakertown Invitational Tournament.
“I have come here for the past three years, and we have lost every time in the first round (of playoffs),” Kluka said. “My senior year coming back and winning it feels great.”
The Indians and Knights might not have been favorites to advance to the title match, but the Knights – despite the absence of senior Matt Elias (injury) – put on an impressive performance, winning their pool with a 7-1 mark and then edging Freedom in the quarterfinals (26-24). They rallied from a loss in game one of their semifinal match to defeat Neshaminy 2-1 (21-25, 25-21, 15-12), earning a spot against the Indians.
Souderton was the lone undefeated team in pool play, compiling an 8-0 mark with wins over Freedom (25-18, 25-17), Bensalem (25-13, 25-13), Southern Lehigh (25-17, 25-10) and Warwick (25-13, 25-17). The Indians upended Council Rock North 25-17 in the quarterfinals and then disposed of Central Bucks West in two games (25-12, 25-16).
Souderton’s hard-fought 2-0 win over North Penn (25-20, 25-22) capped a memorable day for the Indians.
“I think I’m most happy that we were able to finish and play strong the whole day,” coach Brad Garrett said. “We have the talent, and we have the athleticism. It’s just a matter of putting it all together.
“It’s like a building process – learning how to win and learning how the parts will fit together, and today they came together pretty well.”
Not far away, the Indians were celebrating their big win as Gabe Clemmer accepted the championship trophy and raised it in the air.
“I think it’s really good for the rest of the year,” Clemmer said. “It’s going to help us. We played great today.”
Clemmer, who was penciled in to start at outside, was pressed into emergency duty as setter. In Saturday’s tournament, Clemmer had 140 assists to go along with seven blocks and four aces.
“At first, it took a little time to get into it because I was an outside hitter, but I really like it now,” Clemmer said. “It’s been great.”
Souderton’s win avenged a regular season five-set loss to the Knights.
“That made this even greater,” Kluka said.
Kluka set the tone for Saturday’s title match when he delivered a kill for the first point of game one. The Indians led 8-5 after an Andrew Diesel kill on first contact. That lead grew to 14-8 after back-to-back service aces by Clemmer.
A kill by North Penn’s Andy Willits broke the Indians’ run, and it was a 19-15 game after a Mark Meoli block. The Knights trailed by just three (19-16) after a Scott Dickenson kill. Another Kluka kill put the Indians on top 20-16, and a Tim Jones service ace upped that lead to five. They went on to win 25-20 with Diesel delivering game point.
In game two, North Penn seized early control. It began with a Dickenson kill to put the Knights on top 5-4 and culminated when – after back-to-back Dickenson blocks - a Souderton hit out of play gave North Penn a 16-10 lead. A Matt Wittig kill made it a five-point game, but a Souderton hit into the net upped the Knights' lead back to five.
The Knights returned the favor with a net serve, bringing Wittig to the service line for the Indians. A kill on first contact by Clemmer ignited a four-point run that culminated with a Kluka block to make it a 17-16 game. Willits answered with a kill for the Knights, but again Kluka responded with a kill for the Indians.
“Our middles really did a good job,” Clemmer said. “We usually run it with (Kluka) and slow down a little bit when he’s out, and when he gets back, we run it again.”
The Knights still led 19-17 after a Souderton net serve, but a Kluka tip for a winner pulled the Indians within one.
“I was thinking, ‘I need to get one tip this game,’” Kluka said. “Number 22 (Dickenson) was tipping all game, so I thought I would show him what I know about it”
The two teams were deadlocked 19-19 after another Kluka kill, and a Knight passing error put the Indians on top by one. It was a 22-22 tie after a Kyle Suero winner, but the Indians used back-to-back kills by Jones and a Kluka block to seal the win.
“We have challenged ourselves with some good non-league games,” Garrett said. “We had (Christopher) Dock on Friday, and we played Emmaus earlier in the year.
“We’ve really challenged ourselves by playing some of the best teams we could schedule. To get in a game like that against a team you’re familiar with and we knew we had the ability to come back – it was just that confidence.
“Maybe earlier in the year we didn’t have it and we would get frantic and start making errors. I think it’s a growing a maturing process, and we’re most proud of that. It’s something we were lacking in the beginning, and hopefully it will carry us through the postseason.”
Tim Jones led the Indians at the net with 38 kills to go along with 14 digs and five aces. Kluka had 36 kills and eight blocks while Diesel had 36 kills and two blocks. Wittig had 12 kills, 16 digs, five blocks and six aces, and Ryan Davison had 15 kills and 10 blocks. Defensively, Greg Mazza had 23 digs to go along with six aces while Brett Rawa had 16 digs.
A look at the rest of the SOL teams in action would show that Neshaminy and CB West had good days. The two teams shared the top spot in their pool with identical 6-2 records. The Bucks earned 2-0 wins over Southern Lehigh (25-16, 25-10), Christopher Dock (25-17, 25-22) and North Pocono (25-21, 25-21) but dropped a pair of games to the Redskins (20-25, 17-25). In addition to earning a pair of wins over the Bucks, the Redskins swept Southern Lehigh (25-17, 25-13) and split their matches with both Christopher Dock (25-22, 19-25) and North Pocono (21-25, 25-15). West defeated Liberty 25-22 in the quarterfinals before falling to Souderton in the semis.
Quakertown finished first in its pool with a 6-2 record, sweeping Central Bucks South (25-9, 26-24) and Lower Merion (25-14, 25-14) and splitting with Liberty (26-24, 17-25) and Salesianum (25-19, 19-25). Central Bucks South was 3-5 in pool play, sweeping Lower Merion (25-19, 25-19), dropping a pair to Quakertown and Liberty (22-25, 22-25) and splitting with Salesianum (20-25, 25-22).
Council Rock North was 6-2 in pool play but lost its seniors when playoff time rolled around (senior prom). The Indians, who dropped a pair to the Knights, swept Upper Dublin (25-16, 26-24), Glen Mills (25-11, 25-13) and Coughlin (25-19, 25-21). Upper Dublin was 5-3 in the same pool, dropping a pair to Rock North, splitting with North Penn and sweeping Glen Mills (25-15, 25-14) and Coughlin (25-21, 25-22).
In addition to defeating Rock North in pool play, the Knights swept Glen Mills (25-15, 25-17) and Coughlin (25-15, 25-10) while splitting with Upper Dublin (24-26, 25-20).
Bensalem was 3-5 in Souderton’s pool, dropping a pair to the Indians and Freedom but sweeping Southern Lehigh (25-16, 25-13) and splitting with Warwick (25-23, 22-25).
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