Pennsbury defeated Pennridge to capture the District 1 3A title. Bensalem fell to Unionville in the third place game. Photos of both games provided courtesy of Jon Sklut. Check back for galleries of both games: https://solsports.zenfolio.com/f869437409
District 1 3A final
#1 PENNSBURY 3, #2 PENNRIDGE 1 (17-25, 25-12, 25-18, 25-15)
Pennsbury's Lukas Ricciardi slammed home a ‘2 ball’ for the rousing first point of the third set.
Granted, that doesn’t mean a whole lot to anyone but serious volleyball junkies, but listening to Pennridge coach Dave Childs tell it, it was that perfectly executed ‘2 ball’ - after the Falcons had taken a beating in the second set - that helped turn the tide in Thursday’s championship match at Upper Dublin High School.
“Every game is different,” Childs said. “It’s such a serve-and-pass game, and we won the serve-and-pass in the second game, and they won the rest of the games.
“Justin (Fee) is a phenomenal coach. I think the fact that they came out with that play in game three sparked them immediately. They brought 22 (Riccciardi) around for a quick ball, and he buried it, and that brought them back to life a little bit.”
“We just came off a rough set, so we knew we had to come out with some energy,” Ricciardi said. “(A 2 ball) is basically just a high set to the middle. It draws the middle out. I come out of 6 and just hit it as hard as possible.
"(Setter) Kieran (Shaw) connects with it in practice – we’ve been working on it, so we just decided why not try it, and it gave us a huge boost of energy to carry us through the rest of that set.”
Despite that highlight reel point, the third set didn’t begin on a promising of note for the Falcons as the Rams opened up a 6-2 lead. But take away those first eight points of the third set, and the Falcons outscored the Rams 48-27 to close out the match, putting an exclamation point on a win that gave Pennsbury the District 1 3A title - the program's first since 2011.
“This is a great group of guys,” Fee said. “Not only character and awesome kids, but they are super talented - the height, the jumping ability, the athletic ability of these guys.”
No one jumps higher than Nate Knapp, who put his name in the program record books. With his 18 kills Thursday, Knapp has 351 kills on the season,
breaking the longstanding single season record of 345 kills set in 2010 by Pennsbury great Joe Yasalonis.
Fee, for one, thought it was a record that would never be broken.
“Never in a million years,” the Falcons’ coach said.
Knapp also had five of his team’s 11 service aces.
“This is huge,” Knapp said of capturing the district title. “The Pennsbury program has been awesome. Fee is an amazing coach – he has a great legacy, and we just did our jobs and got it done.”
The Falcons entered Thursday’s title match with a 19-0 record in match play, and even after dropping the second set by a lopsided score, their confidence never wavered.
“We just had to play our game – that’s it,” Knapp said. “I don’t think we had our energy, and we didn’t play very well in the second set.”
The Falcons won a hard-fought first set, turning a 12-12 tie into a 25-17 win. The second set was all Pennridge, and the Rams led 18-5 after a Chris Cullen kill. A cross-court kill by Logan Jalosinski made it a 19-8 game, and an Aaron Ladd kill gave the Rams a 20-9 lead as everyone got into the act. They closed it out with a monster block at the net and appeared to have all the momentum.
That didn’t turn out to be the case.
In the fourth set, Pennridge led 7-3 after a Bryce Ammon kill, but that lead disappeared quickly. A Rams’ hitting miscue made it a 10-10 game, and the Falcons took an 11-10 lead on a line service ace by Quinten Kervick, who had a four-point serving run. An ace off the tape by Ricciardi put the Falcons on top 16-12, and they won it when Ricciardi delivered a short roll shot for set point.
Ask Knapp what changed in the third set, and he has an immediate answer.
“Definitely just our energy – I think if we play with the energy we win the game, and that’s exactly what we did,” the Falcons’ senior said. “We got our serves in, and we sided out really well the rest of the game. It was exciting.”
The two teams exchanged points early in the third set. Knapp broke a 10-10 tie with a kill, and Knapp’s tip for a winner gave the Falcons a 13-12 edge. A kill by Ammon evened the score 13-13. The Rams trailed by just one after a Pennsbury service error (15-14), but the rest of the set and the night belonged to the Falcons.
“We worked our butts off this season to get us here,” Ricciardi said. “I buzzed my hair for this – I couldn’t get a buzz to lose. I made a deal with my friend Billy. I said if we made district finals we’d get a buzz. I had to hold true to my word.
“This feels amazing. We’ve been saying since last year we were going to come here and do this. It’s great to outlive the memory.”
“I’m just really proud of this team,” Fee said. “These seniors when they were freshmen – they only won three games coming off of COVID. Three games – the worst season in Pennsbury volleyball history. It was defeating, and three years later, I’m so thankful.”
Both Pennsbury and Pennridge will return to action on Tuesday in the opening round of the PIAA 3A State Tournament. The Falcons will face the District 12 runner-up, and the Rams will take on the District 12 champion.
Childs is looking forward to the opportunity.
“I think we’re a good team,” the Rams’ coach said. “If we could play with Pennsbury, we could play with anyone.”
“They run a very tight system, they all know what they’re doing, and you can tell. Credit to them.”
By the numbers: For Pennsbury - in addition to Knapp, Ricciardi had nine kills, two aces eight digs and one block. Billy Cavanagh added four kills, and Shaw – who had 30 assists – had three kills. Jake Bucksar and Ben Bedard both had eight digs. Bucksar also had one kill and three aces.
Pennridge setter Evan Jalosinski was credited with 25 assists. Logan Jalosinski led the Rams with 12 kills while Ammon had eight kills and eight digs. Aaron Ladd finished with four kills and three blocks, Jude Rotondo had four kills, and Cullen had two kills and four blocks. Ethan Vo had eight digs.
District 1 3A third place game
#6 UNIONVILLE 3, #4 BENSALEM 0
Bensalem fell to Unionville in Thursday’s third place game. With the win, Unionville earned the district’s final spot in the state tournament.
For the Owls, Dev Patel (16 kills), Jahaan Patel (11 kills) and Yosuf Khan (10 kills) led the attack. Luv Patel (22 digs) and Veer Patel (39 assists) also played well for the Owls. “It has been an honor to coach this group,” Bensalem coach Tim Linehan said. “We are disappointed that we are not moving on to states, but these seniors have taken this program to new heights over the last two years. They have brought so much pride and respect to program’s name, and I am incredibly grateful for their passion and dedication to the team.”
Bensalem closed out its successful season with an 18-5 record overall. The Owls were 11-3 in SOL action.
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