Neshaminy 3, Pennsbury 0 (25-23, 25-20, 25-23)
Kevin Roode went home from his team’s historic win over Pennsbury to celebrate with his 11-month-old daughter.“She’s hearing all about it,” the Redskins’ coach said. “When she was born, I left the hospital to go lose to Pennsbury at Pennsbury.
“Pennsbury has had a pretty good stranglehold on the Suburban One League. Justin (Fee) has done an unbelievable job. That’s such a dynasty.”
With Neshaminy’s win on Tuesday, five straight years of losses – not just for the Redskins but for the entire SOL – came to an end. The Redskins’ win snapped a 65-match Falcon winning streak in SOL play dating back to April 20,2006, when they also fell to the Redskins.
“I don’t think it’s completely hit me yet – it’s amazing,” Redskin senior Ryan Roedel said. “Every year I played them since my sophomore year we’ve gotten 3-0ed, and it was good to sweep them back.”
The scene after the match, according to Roode, underscored just how big this win was for the players.
“They were going nuts,” he said. “It was terrific. It was like they won the Super Bowl.
“I don’t think anyone on the team has seen Neshaminy beat Pennsbury, so it was great for them. It’s been so long.”
As Justin Fee watched his team fall for the first time in 66 SOL matches, the Falcons’ coach couldn’t help but see a resemblance between the play of a scrappy Redskin squad and his former Pennsbury high school teammate, Kevin Roode.
“Roode – over the past couple of seasons since he’s taken over – has really instilled some of the things I remember in him as a player and some of the things he liked from his coaches,” Fee said. “One of the big things I know for both Kevin and his brother Brian that I played with – they were all about about being super, super competitive and going full tilt all the time.
“They were very scrappy and played with a lot of energy, and I think he’s instilled that into his players. They keep the ball alive, and they play good defense. He’s really doing a nice job with all of that.”
The former high school teammates share a mutual respect for each other.
“Even though we’re opponents, I can’t help but admire what he has done,” Roode said of Fee. “He’s done such a great job.
“This (win) was nice. They’ve beaten up on us for so many years. There were times we played them I was just happy no one got hurt. This was really big.”
In the win, Dave Baron led the Redskins at the net with 12 kills while Roedel had 10 kills.
“Ryan has been a really solid outside hitter for us,” Roode said. “He had another good day with 10 kills, and he served really well and blocked really well.”Setter Munir Bouzid had 31 assists, and defensively, the Redskins were led by the 22-dig effort of Anthony Kirk.
“Kirk played really, really good defense – he was a big difference maker,” Roode said. “We blocked and defended really well.
“We weren’t giving them a whole lot of clean hits. There were a lot of balls coming off the blocks that we dug up, and that made a huge difference today.”
“We just had to stay focused and stay confident,” Roedel added. “We knew they were going to get kills, and we just had to keep scrapping and playing hard.
“We just tried to keep each other up. At the end of the game, I couldn’t get kills, and everyone was picking me up. Our setter, Munir Bouzid, was key. His sets were amazing, and Dave Baron had a lot of kills, and we had great defense today by Anthony Kirk, our libero.”
The Redskins, according to Roedel, had a point to prove entering the season.
“We didn’t get any recognition,” he said. “Everyone was talking about Pennsbury. Our goal was to beat Pennsbury and finish at the top of the league.
“We have to keep the same work ethic, and we can’t get too far ahead of ourselves. It’s only one game, and we’ll be playing them again. They were without their big middle hitter (Jim Zaluski), and it’s going to be another tough match when we play them at their place. We have Council Rock South on Thursday, and we have to keep our focus.”
With the win, the Redskins improved to 4-0 overall on the young season.
“It’s just a really great way to start the season,” Roode said. “Their confidence is sky high, and that’s such an important thing.”
For the Falcons, whose defending state runner-up squad was wiped out by graduation, Tuesday’s loss underscored that winning league games is anything but automatic.
“I told these guys at the start of the season – this is a new era for us,” Fee said. “Most of the kids that were part of actually winning that many games in a row – they’re gone. The kids that we have back didn’t have any relevance in that long winning streak.
“I told these guys, ‘Don’t expect to just go out and continue the winning streak. We need to take time to improve.’ Obviously, that hit home to our guys today. It’s not just, ‘We’re Pennsbury, we show up and we win.’ It doesn’t happen that way.”
Neshaminy’s win adds a new level of excitement in a conference that the Falcons had dominated.
“I just think it’s a big step in the right direction for the program,” Roode said. “When one team is dominating for so long, it’s probably not that good a thing for the league.
“I think the more competitive it is the better. I think this was a big step in the right direction for our program and hopefully a sign of things to come.”
Fee acknowledged that improving the competitive level of play can only be good for the league.
“I have always been a very firm supporter of other teams in our league that maybe don’t get two nights a week in the offseason to practice to join us,” Fee said. “I’ll give you a court so you can play against us just so that volleyball in this area stays up.
“We went through a little lull where it was us and one of the Council Rocks would be pretty good, but it was too sporadic. It would be nice to see everyone beating each other up in league play. It’s only going to make one of us more capable of winning a championship.”
While the Redskins weren’t talking championship on Tuesday, they were reveling in their big win.
“It’s so exciting,” Roedel said. “Just during the match when we took the first game, we were just focused. Everything just fell together.
“It was a good all-around win. Our coaches were real positive with us. They kept us going and kept us pumped up. It was just a great day.”
NOTES: The Falcons – who were led by the 14-kill effort of Nate Hall - are playing without standout hitter Jim Zaluski (ankle injury), a setback that has slowed their progress after finishing second at the Wilson Tournament. “Things were really heading in the right direction,” Fee said. “Everybody was in their spots, and we were really starting to fine tune things, and then Jim got hurt.” Fee moved Nate Hall into Zaluski’s position and inserted a junior varsity player into Hall’s spot. “The combination of shuffling people around and losing Jim has really made it tough for us the last couple of weeks,” Fee said. “We’re young.”
Quakertown 3, Central Bucks West (25-23, 25-11, 23-25, 18-25, 15-11)
The Panthers (2-2) evened their SOL record with Tuesday’s hard-fought win over the Bucks. Zach Morgan had a huge night for the Panthers, contributing 20 kills, two blocks and two aces. Setter Nate Stout handed out 45 assists to go along with four kills and two aces.
Ian Jones contributed 14 kills and three blocks while Ryan Mease had 10 kills. Spencer Gysi had four kills and two blocks, and Nick Grossov had three kills and four blocks.
William Tennent 3, Council Rock South 0 (25-20, 25-22, 25-21)
Tennent setter Mike Excell handed out 27 assists. Zac Puglisi had a team-high nine kills to go along with eight digs while Kenny Rauchut had eight kills and Logan Clark, seven kills.
The Panthers evened their league mark to 1-1 (2-2 overall).
Souderton 3, Central Bucks South (25-12, 25-22, 25-15)
The stage has been set for Thursday night’s showdown between two of the Continental Conference’s unbeaten squads when the Indians will face the defending champion Rams. Both teams have yet to lose on the young season.
Leading the Indians in Tuesday’s sweeper were Trevor Bishop (10 kills), Chris Kluka (six kills, three blocks) and Cody Leatherman (six kills, two aces).
The Indians are 3-0 in league play (4-0 overall).
Council Rock North 3, Abington 0
The Indians, who improved to 2-0 in league play, used a balanced attack to down the Ghosts. Hunter Stevens and Ryan Garven both had six kills. Setter Dan Ford had 12 assists to go along with four kills while John Whitman had seven assists to go along with four kills and six digs. Chris Richards had seven digs to lead the defense.
Central Bucks East 3, Cheltenham 0 (25-22, 25-21, 26-24)
East was led by setter Kyle Dolf with 31 assists, six kills and four digs. Jeff Wolf added 15 kills and three blocks, and Nick Bennett had 12 kills and four digs. Defensively, the Patriots were led by Mike Donovan with 15 digs.
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