To view action photos of the CR North/Pennridge title match, please visit the photo gallery by clicking on the following link: http://photos.suburbanonesports.com/.
To view a video interview with John Whitman, Ryan Garven and Hunter Stevens, click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/videos/all/154
Council Rock North 3, Pennridge 1 (25-20, 25-20, 24-26, 25-20)
HOLLAND – As Council Rock North captains John Whitman and Hunter Stevens approached center court to accept the District One Class AAAA trophy, Whitman said to no one in particular, “We’ll take it.”
And take it is exactly what the Indians did.
The Indians took a district championship Pennridge owned and made it their own, doing it all in Thursday night’s title match at Council Rock South High School and earning a spot in history by winning the school’s first ever district title in volleyball in front of a wildly enthusiastic crowd.
“It feels great,” Whitman said. “It’s kind of like setting out and taking a test – sitting down studying all season, practicing as hard as we can and then getting an A-plus.
“At the end of it, you just feel fantastic. You just know you did exactly what you had to do in order to accomplish your goal, and that’s a greatest feeling ever.”
For Stevens, it was his second district title game in as many seasons, and the emotions after this one were a whole lot different than they were after the boys’ basketball team fell to Chester in the district title game at Villanova University last winter.
“It’s lot better, a lot less tears,” Stevens said. “We were really disappointed in ourselves in basketball when we played Chester. That was a heartbreaker.
“Tonight we came out, and everybody stepped up their game. We came out from point one to the last point in the fourth game, and we played our best. Even in that third game when we were getting down, our fans really rallied us up, and we kept our momentum going.”
Offensively, four Rock North players – Whitman, Stevens, Dan Ford and Ryan Garven - finished the match with double-digit kills.
More importantly, the Indians displayed the kind of tenacious defense that wins championships, digging up one Ram kill attempt after another while reading the Rams’ offensive sets as if they’d written the playbook with one block after another – 24 all told.
“That’s something we have been focusing on the past couple of weeks - more than anything else is our defense, especially with the blocks,” Rock North coach Susan Kim said. “In the beginning of the season, we started with that, and then we kind of got away from it and started getting sloppier, and we decided blocking is going to help us win games, so we really focused on that in practice, and I think it’s really helped us.”
While the Indians might not have written the Rams’ playbook, they certainly knew it by heart, learning from a late-season loss to the Rams in the title match of the Dallastown Tournament.
“We actually filmed that game, and last night we had a pasta party and watched the footage,” Whitman said. “Kind of from a third person view, we were like – oh my god, and we knew exactly what we should have done.
“It really helped us to think that all we had to do was calm down and slow down, and we can read their shoulders and see where they’re going to hit the ball and not so much just dive around, kind of chasing the ball all night. We played our game nice and controlled.”
Appropriately, it was Whitman and Hunter skying above the net for a block with Whitman delivering the block for match point that set off a jubilant celebration.
“We were really ready to go for this game,” Stevens said. “Last night we watched some film on them from the Dallastown match.
“Not many teams watch film and scout during districts, so I think that really helped us a lot. We could really read them, and our defense knew the gaps to fill and what the tendencies of their hitters were, and that really helped us in the long run.”
On the other side of the court, Ram coach Dave Childs didn’t need to look far to figure out what went wrong in Thursday’s match.
“Ball control,” the Rams’ coach said. “I don’t know that necessarily anything changed since the last time we played them. There were a couple of different players, but the biggest change was our ball control.
“We didn’t serve receive well at all, and that’s really key. That was the difference in the match. They passed well, and they could run whatever they wanted, and we didn’t.”
With their student section cheering their every move before even their first serve, the Indians played with a sense of purpose from the outset. The Rams, meanwhile, looked unnerved and were called for back-to-back double hits to open the match.
The Indians led 7-2 after a Garven kill and upped that lead to 11-4 after a Whitman service ace. It was still a seven-point game (18-11) after a Stevens kills, but Derek Kemmerer answered with a kill for the Rams. Again, Garven had an answer, delivering a kill of his own.
An Erik Moyer line ace made it a 19-14 game, and when the Indians were called for a double hit, the Rams trailed by just four (19-15). Back-to-back service aces by Garven put the Indians on top 23-16, and the Rams would get no closer than five the rest of the way. Stevens closed it out with a monster kill for game point.
“The past few years we have only had one hitter with Andrew Hinton and myself even last year,” Stevens said. “Ryan (Garven) is stepping up, Johnny (Whitman), Dan (Ford) – everyone is stepping up and hitting the ball, so we can really distribute well.
“If they’re triple blocking on me, we just set it to Nick Siokalo – he had some big kills, and he’s wide open, or if they’ll spread out to him, then I’ll have wide open kills. It really helps open up more options.”
The Indians gained early command of game two, opening up a 5-1 lead after a Whitman dink. The Rams pulled to within two (11-9) after a Moyer block, but Stevens answered with a winner for the Indians. A tape ace by Kalin Nelson made it an 11-10 game, but Siokalo delivered a kill for the Indians.
The Rams still trailed by just two (20-18) after a Matt Beck kill and would pull two within two twice more before the Indians reeled off three straight points to close it out – all on Ram miscues.
“We dug ourselves too deep, and it was just inconsistency throughout the night,” Childs said. “We picked up our passing and our defense in the third game.
“I think we kept our defense up, but our serve receive just wasn’t good enough. They knew where we were setting every time.”
Down but not out, the Rams battled back, turning a 7-7 tie into a 12-7 lead in game three. The Rams’ run included a whole lot of junior Kalin Nelson, who had three straight kills during that span.
The Indians rallied to knot the score 22-22, and the teams were still deadlocked 24-24. A Moyer kill was followed by a Nelson kill, and the Rams had eked out the 26-24 win.
“Kalin gave us a lift the whole match,” Childs said. “He was an emotional guy out there and played well to back it up.”
In game four, the Indians went on top 7-4 after a Garven kill. The Rams rallied to go on top 12-11 after a Nelson kill, but a Garven kill knotted the score. Again, Nelson had an answer, and the Rams led 14-12 after a Moyer service ace.
It was a one-point game after the Rams were whistled for a double hit, and when Garrison Lovely delivered a block at the middle, the two teams were deadlocked. It was still a 15-15 game after a Rock North net violation, but a Pennridge serving error gave the Indians a lead they would not lose as the Indians went on to earn the 25-20 win with Whitman delivering the big block for match point.
Lost in the shuffle of the big kills and blocks at the net was the superb defense by both squads that resulted in one riveting volley after another.
“That’s a philosophy when you’re coaching volleyball – defense wins games,” Kim said. “If you can’t pass a ball – you could have the best hitters in the world, but it’s not going to make a difference.
“When you go to some of these games and watch some of the teams warm up, they’ll be hitting the ball really hard, and teams kind of get intimidated, but if they can’t pass, there’s really no point in having that talent at the net.”
Just as the Indians had four players with double-digit blocks, they also had four players –Ford, Whitman, Garven and Chris Richards – who had double-digit digs.
“Defense is huge,” Garven said. “The rallies just go on and on, and the reason we lasted past the rallies is because we kept digging it up, and we wouldn’t let up.
“Coach Sue was just telling me to stay deep, and by staying deep, I was able to read their hits a lot, lot better. I didn’t want to lose again. Especially after Dallastown, just to come back – just a little revenge. That’s, I think, what really pushed our defense to never let the ball drop.”
While the Rams will face the District 12 champion on Tuesday’s opening round state tournament game at Wissahickon High School (6 p.m.), the Indians will take on the District 3 third place squad at 7:30 p.m.
But on this night, the Indians were reveling in their hard-earned district crown.
“It’s amazing,” Garven said. “Over the past three years, we’ve been good and we’d go far, but then we’d lose. We know anything’s possible, and it’s not like we own this or had this. We had to push very, very hard.”
“It feels amazing,” Whitman said. “It’s the best feeling I’ve had in a while.”
NOTES: For the Rams, Mike Shenk had a team-high 12 kills while Nelson had 10 kills to go along with 15 digs. Beck had six kills, and Moyer had four kills, five blocks and nine digs. Matt Trumbower had 39 assists, and libero Jake Braun had 22 digs. Ford led the Indians with 13 kills to go along with 23 assists, 13 digs and three blocks. Whitman had 27 assists, 10 kills, 10 digs and four blocks. Garven contributed 12 kills, 13 digs and four blocks, and Stevens had 12 kills and five blocks. Chris Richards had 22 digs, and Eric Stettner had seven digs. Siokalo had four kills and four blocks, and Garrison Lovely had four blocks.
Christopher Dock 3, Souderton 1 (15-25, 25-21, 25-23, 25-22)
Everything seemed to be going the Indians’ way as they rolled to a convincing win in game one, but after dropping game two and losing setter Alex Long for the remainder of the match, the Indians struggled the rest of the way.
“We switched setters in midstream, and that took us out of our rhythm,” coach Brad Garrett said. “Luke (Burns) is good enough, but we just didn’t execute.
“We didn’t play as a team. We weren’t communicating, and we weren’t doing the little things it takes to win games like this. It’s a little disappointing.”
Trevor Bishop led the Indians with 19 kills, and Cody Leatherman had 13 kills. Chris Kluka added 11 kills out of the middle. Andrew Diesel had five stuff blocks, and Christian Benner led the defense with 30 digs.
The Indians return to action on Tuesday night when they will hit the road to play an opening round state tournament game against one of the state’s top-ranked squads out of District 3.
“They just need to relax and play the game they’re capable of playing,” Garrett said. “The psychology of the sport is always fun – what are these high school kids thinking.
“We come out and play game one where they’re all fired up and the bench is hooting and hollering. In game two, it just all goes away. What happened? Part of it is on me and the coaches – we have to find a way to motivate the guys and get them to play their best.”
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