North Penn finished second to Christopher Dock at Saturday’s Quakertown Invitational Tournament.
By Mary Jane Souder
The North Penn Knights came oh-so-close to winning the championship of the Quakertown Invitational Tournament on Saturday.
The Knights, who rolled through pool play without a loss, fell to Christopher Dock in a tightly contested title match 2-1 (20-25, 25-14, 13-15).
“They played well all day,” coach Tim Moyer said. “We had a little bit of a lull at the beginning of the week. We didn’t show up at all for the Pennridge match, and I really let them have it after that match.
“They had a captain’s meeting on Friday, and obviously, it did a lot of good things. We went undefeated and made it all the way to the final. We came up just a little short against a good Christopher Dock team. That match could have gone either way. We were in the whole match, and you can’t ask for a whole lot more than that.”
After falling in the first set of the title match, the Knights served the Pioneers off the court in the second. Four straight Dock miscues allowed the Knights to turn an 8-8 tie into a 12-8 lead.
Andy Willits stepped to the service line and reeled off another four-point run. This one included a pair of service aces as well as a Kyle Sucro kill that put the Knights on top 17-9. They increased that lead to 23-12 after a Sucro service ace and led 24-14 after a Willits kill on their way to the 25-14 win.
Points didn’t come as easily in the third set, and neither team had more than a one-point lead until Dock went on top 14-12 late in the set on its way to the win.
“I think the attitude in the third game – sometimes we’re playing not to lose instead of playing to win,” Willits said. “That’s one mentality we have to (change) because it messes with our team this season.
“We knew we could beat them. We had to step up our play.”
While the Pioneers struggled with the Knights’ service game in the second set, they had few problems in the third set.
“When you get into the close matches, maybe some guys are afraid to give points away,” Moyer said. “We were playing a little bit behind in that game.
“We might have backed off a little bit, but we told them to go aggressive.”
A highlight of the tournament was the Knights 2-1 win over Council Rock North, a win that avenged North Penn’s loss to the Indians in the semifinals of the Christopher Dock Tournament a week earlier.
“We just wanted to show them we could beat them and we had the skills to do it,” Willits said. “It was a tough match. They’re a great team. We fought hard.”
Willits pointed to the Knights’ sweep of Liberty in pool play as a turning point on Saturday.
“That got us going, and that really built up our confidence, so coming into the playoffs, we knew we could beat any team here if we played our best,” Willits said.
The Knights, after sweeping their pool, defeated North Pocono 25-10 in a one-game quarterfinal, setting the stage for their semifinal match with Rock North and the title match against Dock.
“This was our last tournament of the season coming in, and I think they were ready to work hard and see what happened,” Moyer said.
According to Willits, the Knights can use their strong showing as a springboard into the postseason.
“It’s fantastic,” the senior outside hitter said. “Just yesterday we had a team meeting, and we were just trying to figure out some of the problems we had. It wasn’t with our skills – it was more mentally.
“I think we solved a decent amount of issues. We ended the practice light and having a lot of fun, so coming into this tournament, we felt great. This is huge as we’re going into playoffs.”
North Penn, Rock North and Central Bucks East were the only SOL schools to advance out of pool play. Rock North also went through pool play without a loss, defeating Central Bucks South (25-22, 25-18), Salesianum (25-17, 25-11), Haverford (25-11, 25-20) and East (25-17, 25-23). The Indians defeated CB East in a one game quarterfinal, 25-22, before falling to North Penn in the semis (25-21, 22-25, 13-15).
Leading the Indians on Saturday were Chris Richards (28 kills, 31 digs, 3 blocks, 2 aces), Josh Hinton (15 kills, 16 digs, 1 block), Dan Rafalovitch (96 assists, 17 digs, 5 kills, 3 blocks) and Doug Devitt (36 digs, 1 ace). Also contributing were Jeremy Higgins (7 kills, 4 blocks, 4 digs), Tyler Burns (5 kills, 8 blocks, 16 digs), Devin McIntyre (2 kills, 4 blocks), Nick Reich (6 kills) and Andy Van Thuyne (11 digs, 1 kill).
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