TOWAMENCIN – Council Rock North entered the 2011 season with lofty expectations.
“Before the start of the season, we had a meeting and laid down our goals,” senior Hunter Stevens said. “Our first goal was to beat Pennsbury, and our next goal was to win the league and be the number one seed in districts.
“Those are our expectations right now, and we’re definitely making a statement. We’re showing we can play out of our league and beat teams. We’re going to face good competition, so we have to bring our best game.”
The Indians found out in a hurry just how important it is to bring their best game when they dropped the first game of Saturday’s Christopher Dock Tournament to William Tennent, 25-22. They went on to win the next two (25-23, 25-13) and rolled to an 8-1 record in pool play, sweeping Lower Merion (25-4, 25-9, 25-15) and downing Central Bucks West in three straight.
As a result, the Indians were seeded first after pool play and received a bye in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, Rock North defeated Haverford in two straight games and then went on to down North Penn 2-1 (25-21, 24-26, 15-7) to capture the tournament title.
“For our team, this was very important,” senior John Whitman said. “We felt that winning now sets a good precedent for the rest of the season. We wanted to go full force the entire season and not let up at any time.
“I think this was a perfect example of that.”
“Last year was a letdown,” Stevens added of his team’s second place finish last year. “We definitely should have won this.”
Saturday’s title was the first ever for the Indians in the Dock Tournament.
“We started our day and lost our first pool play game to William Tennent,” Rock North assistant coach Greg Marchetti said. “It kind of woke us up for the day, and it was more motivation to play well, and it kind of carried us through pool play.
“We had a chance to play some teams we don’t usually play, and I think the boys are starting to come together. Every year at this time of year you have to start getting your confidence. It’s not really about wins or losses. Right now, it’s about improving every day.
“Our goal is to play our best volleyball at the end of the day, and I think that’s what we accomplished. We didn’t start out strong, but we were playing our best volleyball at the end of the day.”
Stevens, who was named tournament MVP, led the Indians with 36 kills and 15 blocks. Dan Ford had 59 assists, 18 kills, 10 aces, 10 digs and four blocks. Whitman added 43 assists, 17 kills, 12 digs and seven blocks. Ryan Garven contributed 15 kills, 17 digs and five blocks. Garrison Lovely added 14 kills and nine blocks. “We spread the ball around a lot,” Marchetti said. “Everybody knows Hunter is our go-to guy, but in order for us to get to the state level, we have to spread the ball around. We can’t rely on one hitter.
“John Whitman and Dan Ford – our primary setters – did an excellent job of spreading the ball around today. Chris Richards, our sophomore libero, has really been coming into his own. He’s the only sophomore on the court, and he’s doing real well.”
Richards led the Indians with 32 digs to go along with five aces.
Junior Christian Kiselica, who was injured in the North Penn match, contributed eight kills, 15 digs and four blocks. He also earned a spot on the all-tournament team.
“This year we definitely have a lot of variety on the team, and that’s what makes us so strong,” Whitman said. “We have a lot of depth on the bench, and we can bring in different people to fill a role.
“You see a lot of time our players play all the way around. Our team is versatile, and we can keep (our hitters) in, and it gives us offensive weapons playing in the back row.”
After winning game one of their title match, the Indians – who had not lost since their first game of the day – found themselves staring at an 18-10 deficit in game two and still trailed 20-13. They rallied to knot the score but came up just short, falling 26-24.
“We had a strong comeback,” Stevens said. “We just had mental errors, but they played well. North Penn is definitely one of the better teams we have seen all season.
“It was good to compare ourselves with one of the better teams, and we came out and showed we could play with them.”
For North Penn coach Kevin Eck, watching his team earn a spot in Saturday’s title game on the heels of a disappointing loss to Souderton two days earlier was especially gratifying.
The difference?
“Really, it was confidence,” the Knights’ coach said. “I know it sounds funny, but really, that was the difference.
“Against Souderton, we did not play with confidence, we did not do the things that we have been doing most of the year, and it got away from them and they checked out. Today it was a whole different thing. They were up, and they stayed up the whole time. They were relaxed, they were focused, and they were aggressive. Except for perhaps this last match, they played really, really well.
“This is how I expect them to play. They tend to get down on themselves, but this is a game of errors. Let’s hope this was a maturing process for them.”
The Knights managed to even the match with their big win in the second game, but in the winner-take-all third game, the Indians sprinted to a 6-1 lead after a service ace. The Knights made it a 7-3 game after a Davidson kill, but the Indians led 9-3 after a Ryan Garven kill.
It was a 9-5 game after a Rock North hit in the net, but the Indians closed out the game and the match with a 6-2 run that culminated with a Knight hit out of play for match point.
“We like this tournament because the way our league is set up we don’t get to play a lot of teams from other leagues,” Marchetti said. “Playing teams like North Penn, Haverford and Central Bucks West – you get to see some of the teams you’re going to see in the district tournament.”
Setter Matt Elias and outside hitter Chris Davidson represented North Penn on the all-tournament team, but Eck credited Andy Willits, Mark Kim, Dan Pak, Jake Sisko as well as his entire squad for their contributions.
“When we played Souderton Thursday, we came out slow, and we made so many errors,” Davidson said. “That’s been the story of our season – making those errors.
“Today we limited our errors by a long shot. This is exactly what we needed. We only lost two games this season and one of them was to Pennridge, and hopefully this will be a big push for the rest of the season.”
The Indians also hope they can carry the momentum of their tournament title win when they will travel to Neshaminy on Tuesday for a battle of the National Conference’s lone undefeated squads.
“We kind of have these lulls in our schedule where we play a team like Pennsbury and then we go through a couple of other teams that aren’t as strong,” Whitman said. “In those games, it’s very important to try our best, keep our morale up and keep our energy high.
“We don’t want to constantly be fluctuating with our emotions. We can’t go into one game lackadaisically and then the next one expect to turn it on.”
“That’s one of the main things we have to do throughout the season – we have to stay consistent,” added Stevens. “I’m sure we can play better. We haven’t hit our peak yet.
“We have to continually get better.”
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