SOL District Girls’ VB Preview (Opening Round)

Eleven SOL girls’ volleyball teams will be in action in Tuesday’s opening round of the District One AAA Tournament.

This year’s Central Bucks East squad surprised coach Scott Geller, but it was the best kind of surprise –finishing undefeated in the league season while capturing the Continental Conference crown.
“To be honest, coming into the season, I didn’t think it would end like this,” Geller said. “I thought it would be a battle between CB South, North Penn, CB West, even Pennridge and ourselves.
“A lot of teams sustained some injuries and lost some players from prior years, and I knew I had a lot of depth coming back.
“When we talked at the beginning of the season – a conference title is obviously always something that they shoot for, but I wouldn’t have said we were shooting for an undefeated season because I would have been the first to say I didn’t think it would happen like that.”
The team’s success, according to Geller, has been a team effort, but outside hitter Krista Helveston, outside hitter Natalie Arm and libero Erin Lane as well as freshman middle Jenn Krzeminski have come up big.
“We are very well balanced,” the Patriots coach said. “Julia Gallagher had a high ankle sprain, and she missed half the season, so she’s just starting to come back.
“Kate Woolsey is our opposite and fills in the middle. Madie D’Angelo is our setter. We do have a lot of depth.
“All those kids – I would expect great things. We have a couple of kids looking to play in college, so it’s nice for me as a coach to be able to work with that much depth. It’s hard for me to single out one person.”
The Patriots’ goal extends behind a league title. Geller would like to see his team advance beyond the second round and potentially earn a berth in the state tournament.
“Once the first half of the season came through, I think the girls could see where they could potentially finish,” Geller said. “In the middle of the season, we started talking about – depending on where we finished in our ranking, that path to qualify for states. We’ve always wound up running into the fourth seed in the second round. A lot of these kids have been with me for those second round matches, and their goal is to break that hump.”
Central Bucks East will host William Tennent in an opening round match Tuesday.

Falcons aiming high – After winning back-to-back conference crowns, anything less this season might well have been considered a disappointment for a Pennsbury squad that is a perennial SOL power.
“In my four years, I thought we had the most talented team top to bottom coming back, so we had very high expectations coming in,” coach Mike Falter said. “Winning the league championship was our first goal, and we focused on that.
“Ever since I took over the job, I’ve tried to instill in the girls that the season needs to be more than winning the league, more than beating Council Rock North. We’re a very capable program. We just need to get over that hump of – yes, being league champions, but we want to make the state tournament. From all the success I had with the boys’ program, going to states is the highlight of your year. I want these girls to realize that, and it’s definitely attainable, stepping into this year with the talent we had coming back.”
The Falcons earned their third straight crown, but the biggest issue facing this year’s squad has not been a lack of talent but rather an absence of consistency.
“We’re so up and down,” said Falter. “I really thought we could have gone undefeated.”
Leading this year’s squad with their work ethic are the seniors.
“Kate Foley is a workhorse, and she’s a great captain on the court,” Falter said. “Having her as setter has been phenomenal.
“Dagny Gould has gone unnoticed a lot just because she plays libero.”
Sophomore outside Julia Vreeswyk has been a key to the Falcons’ success.
“Julia has been a big addition this year,” Falter said. “I didn’t know what to expect from her. I coached in the same club she’s in, and I got to see her play a lot, but I was curious how it would transfer.
“She’s a great athlete, and she’s a great player, and she has this ‘I don’t care’ attitude, but it’s in a good way. She doesn’t get fazed by the pressure of the game, she doesn’t get fazed if teams block her, she doesn’t get fazed if teams dig her – she’s just going to go up, and she’s going to swing aggressively, no matter what. She stays balanced the entire match, and as a sophomore, that’s a credit to her. I’m very anxious to see how her career goes for the next two years after this year.”
A player who has gone unnoticed, according to Falter, is opposite Ali Zinnen, a co-captain.
“She’s ‘Miss Consistency,’” the Falcons’ coach said. “She’s every coach’s dream. She’s not the best athlete. We have athletes on the team who are better than her, but anything you ask her to do – she does, and she does it 100 percent. She’s having a really, really good year because she has to work hard for it.
“Elle Patterson has been doing well for us. She’s been a little up and down, but if we can get her clicking and Julia clicking, I think we could be a very hard team to beat. Winning a league title is obviously first and foremost, but I’m curious to see which team shows up every time we step on the court for districts.”
The Falcons will find out that answer when they face a battle tested Avon Grove squad on Tuesday.

Tennent’s Koppany reaches milestone – Alexandria Dakota Koppany surpassed the 1,500-assist milestone in William Tennent’s match against Ridley. She closed out the regular season with 1,643 assists, shattering the record of 1,388 held by Kelly McMenamin.
“Her sophomore year she really had a ton of hitters around her, but her junior and senior years, she really escalated the play of the hitters from the way she betters the ball,” coach Brian Bassler said. “You get a comment every single time we play from the coaches – your setter is unbelievable.
“She really does make every second ball better. She’s the type of kid where it was a natural ability. She was born to be a setter.”
All but 22 of Koppany’s assists came in the last three years – 637 during the Panthers’ big run her sophomore season.
“She probably would have made a run at 2,000 in three years, but when Jaime (Bonner) and Amber (Wood) got hurt last year, her numbers went down,” Bassler said. “She only had 425, but she had over a thousand coming in her senior year.”
Koppany got her start in volleyball playing CYO.
“She had a little bit of an edge coming in on some of the other players,” Bassler said. “She would come to our camps, and she naturally had good hands and was a really good server as well.
“Her freshman year she didn’t set that much. We’ve had really good setters historically and Hannah Washam was there at the time.
“That was the first year we ever won a playoff match, and Alex was doing some serving for us, playing a little back row. She would come in and set some of those matches. Her club season from freshman to sophomore year she took off a little bit. Her sophomore year she had so much confidence from the other hitters around her, and she just had a spectacular year. She got to learn the game around other players that really knew the game, so when she moved on into her junior season – even when we lost Jaime, she has that ability to still take over a match with her serving and setting, and she knew she could. Whereas before, she would have been unsure, but those guys really brought her along.”

#28 WILLIAM TENNENT at #5 CENTRAL BUCKS EAST
Central Bucks East

18-2 overall
12-0 SOL Continental Conference champions
Wins over #10 Upper Dublin (3-1), #13 Central Bucks West (3-1, & 3-0), #17 West Chester Henderson, #27 Central Bucks South (3-1 & 3-0), #28 William Tennent (3-1) and #29 Pennridge (3-1, 3-0)
Only losses came at the hands of #7 Downingtown West (3-2) and PCL power Archbishop Wood (3-1)

William Tennent

12-10 overall
8-4 SOL National Conference third place
Earned a regular season win over conference champion Pennsbury

#25 SUN VALLEY at #8 UPPER MERION
Upper Merion

15-3 overall
13-1 SOL American Conference co-champions with Upper Dublin
Wins over #10 Upper Dublin (3-2), #19 Plymouth Whitemarsh (3-0 & 3-0), #22 Abington (3-0 & 3-1), #26 Garnet Valley (3-1) and #29 Pennridge (3-1)
Co-championship was the 17^th conference crown for the Vikings
Only SOL loss came in final match of the regular season to Upper Dublin

Sun Valley

10-9 overall
4-9 Ches-Mont American Conference fourth place
Defeated #19 Council Rock North (3-1)

#23 HAVERFORD at #10 UPPER DUBLIN
Upper Dublin

16-4 overall
13-1 SOL American Conference co-champions with Upper Merion
Wins over #8 Upper Merion (3-2), #19 Plymouth Whitemarsh (3-2 & 3-0) & #22 Abington (3-2 & 3-1)

Haverford

12-8 overall
8-3 Central League tied for third place with Ridley
Regular season win over #11 Ridley (3-1) and #24 Conestoga (3-1)

#21 AVON GROVE at #12 PENNSBURY
Pennsbury

15-4 overall
11-1 SOL National Conference champions
2015 title was program’s third consecutive
Wins over #3 Strath Haven (3-1), #13 Central Bucks West (3-1), #18 Council Rock North (3-1 & 3-2), #26 Garnet Valley (3-2) and #28 William Tennent (3-0)
Only loss in SOL to William Tennent

Avon Grove

14-8 overall
10-3 Ches-Mont National Division second to Bishop Shanahan
Wins over #7 Downingtown West (3-1), #9 Downingtown East (3-2), #17 West Chester Henderson (3-2), #20 West Chester Rustin (3-1) and #23 Haverford (3-1)

#20 WEST CHESTER RUSTIN at #13 CENTRAL BUCKS WEST
Central Bucks West

14-5 overall
9-3 SOL Continental Conference second place behind Central Bucks East
Wins over #10 Upper Dublin (3-2), #22 Abington (3-0), #27 Central Bucks South (3-0), #28 William Tennent (3-0) and #29 Pennridge (3-0 & 3-0)

West Chester Rustin

14-8 overall
7-6 Ches-Mont American Division third place
Wins over #23 Haverford (3-0), #24 Conestoga (3-1) and #25 Sun Valley (3-0)

#18 COUNCIL ROCK NORTH at #15 UNIONVILLE
Council Rock North

14-7 overall
Wins over #10 Upper Dublin (3-0) and #28 William Tennent (3-2 & 3-0)

Unionville

11-6 overall
9-4 Ches-Mont American Division second place behind Great Valley
Wins over #8 Upper Merion (3-2), #17 West Chester Henderson (3-1), #21 Avon Grove (3-1) and #25 Sun Valley (3-1)

#19 PLYMOUTH WHITEMARSH at #14 MOUNT ST. JOSEPH
Plymouth Whitemarsh

13-7 overall
9-5 SOL American Conference third place
Wins over #11 Ridley (3-1), #13 Council Rock North (3-1), #22 Abington (3-1), #27 Central Bucks South (3-0) and William Tennent (3-0)

Mount St. Joseph

13-7 overall
Competes in Catholic Academies League
Win over #12 Pennsbury (3-0)

#22 ABINGTON at #11 RIDLEY
Abington

12-7 overall
8-6 SOL American Conference fourth place
Wins over #19 Plymouth Whitemarsh (3-2) and #27 Central Bucks South (3-0)

Ridley

15-5 overall
8-3 Central League tied for third place with Haverford
Wins over #16 West Chester Henderson (3-0), #24 Conestoga (3-0), #25 Sun Valley (3-2) and #26 Garnet Valley (3-1)

#27 CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH at #6 PENNCREST
Central Bucks South

10-8 overall
7-5 SOL Continental Conference third place
Defeated #13 Central Bucks West (3-2) in regular season finale

Penncrest

16-3 overall
10-1 Central League second place to Strath Haven
Wins over #11 Ridley (3-0), #23 Haverford (3-0), #24 Conestoga (3-1) and Garnet Valley #26.

#29 PENNRIDGE at #4 PERKIOMEN VALEY
Pennridge