Pennsbury swept William Tennent in a key National Conference battle. Check out all of Tuesday’s results. To view photos of the Pennsbury/Tennent match, please visit the Photo Gallery.
PENNSBURY 3, WILLIAM TENNENT 0 (25-15, 25-15, 25-21)
Justin Fee calls it ‘dumb luck.’ By any description, moving junior Pat Merrick from setter to opposite hitter this season is looking a whole lot like a stroke of genius.
Merrick – who delivered a team-high 12 kills in Tuesday’s key conference match against the Panthers – has been a natural at the net for the young Falcons, who own a share of the top spot in the National Conference standings.
“We have made leaps and bounds from our offseason to now,” coach Justin Fee said. “Partially, it was switching back to our old 5-1 system because I was confident Jeff Yasalonis – who wasn’t ready to play setter last year – came in and was just unbelievable.
“He showed us that he needed to be on the court, so we started out with a 6-2, and we really liked the tempo of Jeff’s sets and his set selection.”
With Yasalonis excelling at setter, Fee moved Merrick – last year’s starting setter – to his new position at the net.
“I knew Pat was probably our kid with the most potential to be our next opposite of the future,” Fee said. “He’s really working out for a kid who’s never played that position before. He really never hit until this year, and it’s amazing how well he’s doing, even with his swings out of the back row. He has great ball control.”
So far, the moves have been golden as the Falcons are off to 5-1 start in SOL play (6-1 overall).
“Call it dumb luck – it’s just fallen in place, and hopefully, we’ll keep getting better,” Fee said. “Obviously, there are still things we need to work on.”
Everything was working for the Falcons in Tuesday’s sweep of the Panthers.
Yasalonis had 32 assists, one kill, two aces and nine digs. In addition to 12 kills, Merrick also had two digs and two aces, and junior Sean Kropp added 10 kills (.350 hitting percentage), 12 digs and two blocks. Junior Chris Spano had eight kills (.389) and three digs. Dalton Zimmerman had six kills (.400) and three aces. Troy Pereira led the defense with 13 digs.
“What I loved about our guys and we’ve been preaching this at practice – I want a swing at everything possible,” Fee said. “I really think we honestly did that.
“We had a lot of swings off our defense and made it very tough for them to earn points, didn’t give a lot of free balls. I thought we served really well tonight, which is what we’re going to need to do since we’re not a super strong blocking team.”
For the Panthers, Nick Gross had a game-high 15 kills while teammate Ken Rauchut had six kills. Justin Keeny had 19 digs, and Mike Excell had eight digs.
Jim Creighton didn’t need to think hard to figure out what went wrong in Tuesday’s match.”
“Serving and passing - which is always the first battle if you want to beat a team,” the Panthers’ coach said. “You have to serve better than them or pass better than them.
“Tonight they did both better than us. Our serve receive – the first two games we couldn’t pass and we couldn’t run our offense The third game it got a little better but not anywhere near where it needs to be.”
Serving also was an Achilles heel for the Panthers.
“You can’t beat teams, no matter who you play, if you’re going to be tentative back there,” Creighton said. “They’re consistent, they keep the ball in play and they serve well.
“Pennsbury has always done that. They’re a good defensive team with their blocking. We usually have battles with them.”
The Panthers trailed by four through much of the first set, but the Falcons turned a 15-11 lead into a 25-15 win with a 10-4 run to close out the game. The run culminated with a kill by Zimmerman, the lone senior on this year’ squad.
“We just didn’t make many mistakes tonight,” Zimmerman said. “We just kept hitting confident and playing confident as a team.
“We didn’t give them any time to get into a rhythm.”
Game two was more of the same. It was a 4-3 game after a Rauchut kill, and the Pant
hers were still within striking distance (11-8) when the Falcons reeled off six straight points to go on top 17-8 on their way to the 25-15 win.
The third set was by far the most competitive of the night as the Panthers, who fell behind 8-3 after a passing error, rallied to take a 10-9 lead.
The Falcons went on top 11-10 after a Merrick kill and stretched that lead to 14-11 before the Panthers battled back yet again, knotting the score 16-16 after a block by sophomore middle Steve Van Der Mooren. It was still an 18-18 game after a Falcon hit out.
A kill by Neil Helsel gave the Falcons a lead they would not lose. They led 22-18 after a Merrick kill and closed it out with a Kropp kill.
Last Friday, the Falcons – whose only blemish is a loss to Council Rock North – picked up a decisive sweep over a Northeastern squad that is ranked 10th in the most recent Class AA rankings.
“That was really big,” Zimmerman said. “We always know that Northeastern is good and we have to play our best. That (win) just got our confidence up.”
While some may be surprised by the Falcons’ early success this season, Zimmerman is not in that number.
“My expectations are as high as anybody’s could be,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how we do in any game, I still expect the best out of our team.
“There’s no reason why we can’t play at our best. It’s all about having heart and wanting to play your best.”
SOUDERTON 3, CENTRAL BUCKS WEST (25-16, 25-21, 25-17)
The Indians responded to Monday’s disappointing loss to North Penn to earn a decisive 3-0 win over the visiting Bucks on Tuesday.
Ryan Davison and Chris Kluka both contributed eight kills and two blocks while Andrew Diesel had a team-high nine kills to lead the Indians at the net. Matt Wittig added four kills and seven digs. Greg Mazza led the Indians’ defense with 11 digs while Brett Rawa had eight digs. Setter Gabe Clemmer had 32 assists.
Mike Fehrs led the Bucks with nine kills, six digs and three blocks while Christian Rupert added five kills. Joel Klapper led West’s defense with nine digs.
The Indians (6-3 overall) and Bucks are both 6-2 in league play.
BENSALEM 3, COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 1 (25-21, 20-25, 25-21, 25-19)
The Owls were led by the nine-kill effort of Victor Bykovsky, who also had three aces. Sheel Patel and Daveshu Patel both had eight kills while Neel Patel had six kills. Setter Rikesh Patel had 30 assists to go along with five kills.
The Owls improved to 2-4 in league play (3-4 overall) while the Golden Hawks fell to 0-5 in the league (1-5 overall).
COUNCIL ROCK NORTH 3, NESHAMINY 1 (25-16, 25-13, 18-25, 25-18)
Chris Richards led the Indians at the net with 13 kills to go along with six digs. Dan Ford added 11 kills as well as 16 assists, nine digs, 10 aces and four blocks. Dan Rafalovitch had 23 assists. Tyler Burns had seven kills and Christian Kiselica added six kills and nine digs. Jeremy Higgins had four kills and eight blocks, and Devin McIntyre had four kills and five blocks. Eric Stettner led the Indians defensively with 21 digs.
The Indians improved to 6-1 in league play while the Redskins dropped to 4-3.
CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 3, UPPER DUBLIN 1 (23-25, 25-23, 25-21, 25-18)
The Flying Cardinals earned a win in game one, but the Patriots rallied to win the next three. The Patriots were led by the all-around performance of Kyle Dolf (14 assists, 14 kills, three blocks). Nick Bennett led the Patriots at the net with 15 kills and eight blocks. He also had seven digs. Jack Perrotta had six kills. Michael Donovan anchored the Patriots’ defense with 14 digs while Colby Talia had six digs.
The Patriots improved to 4-4 while the Flying Cardinals fell to 2-7.
NORTH PENN 3, CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 0 (25-14, 25-12, 25-22)
Keith Mecutchen (seven kills, two blocks, four aces) and Stephen Huh (eight kills, one block) led the Titans at the net. Kyle Zaluski had two kills and three blocks. While the Titans fell to 0-8, the Knights improved to 6-2 in league play.
PENNRIDGE 3, CHELTENHAM 0 (25-15, 25-19, 25-15)
Kolby Smith led the Rams with 10 kills, seven digs and four aces. Evan Jacoby added six kills and five digs. Devon Rice had four kills while Matt Ziegler led the defense with 10 digs. Austin McVaugh had 24 assists and three aces.
The Rams, ranked fifth in the latest PVCA poll, are 8-0 in league play while the Panthers fell to 1-8 (1-9 overall).
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