To view photos of the Pennridge/Tennent and Quakertown/Haverford games, visit the photo gallery at the following link: http://photos.suburbanonesports.com/
#1 Pennridge 3, #16 William Tennent 0 (25-9, 25-10, 25-18)
The Rams looked the part of the district’s top-seeded team, rolling to a sweep of the visiting Panthers.
“We came out ready to play,” coach Dave Childs said. “They know it’s the playoffs now.
“William Tennent has a good volleyball tradition. Jim Creighton does a good job. They’re not as strong this year, but that was something our guys recognized and knew they had to come out and play, which was nice to see.”
Senior Jake Braun led the defense with 17 digs while setter Matt Trumbower had 30 assists. Derek Kemmerer had eight kills, eight digs and two aces, and Mike Shenk had seven kills, two blocks and four aces. Junior Erik Moyer contributed six kills, and Kalin Nelson had four kills and two aces. Matt Beck contributed three kills and three blocks, and Ryan Chinnici had two kills and three blocks.
The Rams will host Haverford in a quarterfinal match on Thursday. The ninth-seeded Fords downed eighth-seeded Quakertown 3-1.
#2 Council Rock 3, Abington 1 (25-15, 23-25, 25-16, 25-16)
The Indians, who were playing without senior Ryan Garven, fought off the pesky Ghosts to earn the hard-fought win.
“We practiced without Ryan yesterday and changed our lineup completely,” coach Susan Kim said. “Abington played well. They came out on fire.
“We struggled a little bit. Our blocking fell apart, and our defense was kind of sporadic. We played well as a team tonight without Ryan, and we were able to come back and finish.”
In the absence of Garven, Kim ran a 5-1 with senior John Whitman doing the setting. He finished the night with 29 assists to go along with two kills, six digs and five blocks. Hunter Stevens led the Indians at the net with 18 kills and three blocks. Dan Ford added 12 kills and 10 digs. Garrison Lovely had four kills and four blocks. Defensively, the Indians were led by Chris Richards (17 digs) and Eric Stettner (13 digs).
The Indians will host archrival Pennsbury in a quarterfinal match on Thursday night.
#3 Souderton 3, #14 Council Rock South 1 (25-17, 25-18, 20-25, 25-20)
The Indians were without senior setter Alex Long (illness), but they gutted out an opening round win over the Golden Hawks. In Long’s absence, junior Luke Burns stepped up and filled the role of setter.
“The thing I was most pleased with is that we seemed to – as the match progressed – work better as a team,” coach Brad Garrett said. “This is the first time this group has been together.
“I thought Luke did a good job setting, but at the same time, it’s different. It’s a different delivery, it’s a different height, and the hitters have to adjust to it. I thought as the match progressed, they did a better job of adjusting. We just know we have a little bit of work to do tomorrow to prepare for North Penn. They’re a very good blocking team, and we’re going to have to step it up a notch.”
Chris Kluka led the Indians at the net with 13 kills. Trevor Bishop had 10 kills and eight digs while Cody Leatherman had 12 kills. Christian Benner led the defense with 14 digs.
#4 Neshaminy 3, Unionville 0 (25-14, 25-13, 25-15)
The final score suggests the Redskins won in a cakewalk, but coach Kevin Roode insists it wasn’t really that easy.
“Unionville really fought hard, and it was a lot closer than the score indicates – they’re a tough team,” the Redskins’ coach said, going on to laud his team. “Ryan Roedel played really well, and our team defense was the biggest key to the win tonight, anchored by our libero Anthony Kirk. They just scrapped for everything and seemed to get everything up.”
According to Roode, the Redskins benefit from facing tough competition night in and night out in the SOL.
“We have to play Council Rock North twice, and we have to play Pennsbury twice,” he said. “There are just so many good teams, and it really does prepare you well for the playoffs.”
The Redskins will host Christopher Dock in a quarterfinal game on Thursday.
“The guys are playing really well, and the attitude is really positive, so I’m just hoping we can go as far as we can,” Roode said.
#6 North Penn 3, #11 Avon Grove 0 (25-15, 25-20, 25-21)
Riding the strength of a six-point service run by Matt Elias to break a 10-10 tie, the Knights rolled to a convincing win in game one. The Devils managed to keep things interesting in games three and four, but the Knights were never really threatened.
It turns out the Knights may have been guilty of looking ahead a bit, and it’s hard to blame them. After falling twice to Souderton in the regular season, there is nothing this North Penn squad wanted more than another shot at their neighboring rivals.
They will get it on Thursday night
“Souderton has been on our minds even though this game,” senior Chris Davidson said.
“I think that was a problem,” senior Evan Thompson added. “We were thinking more about the Souderton game than this game.
“After the first game, we knew what we had to do, but our emotions weren’t there.”
Davidson led the Knights at the net with 13 kills to go along with five digs. It was the senior outside hitter’s monster kill for game point that put an exclamation point on the decisive win in game one. The Knights ended the second game with an Elias service ace, and the third ended with Davidson slamming his 13th and final kill of the night off a defenseless Avon Grove player.
The stage has been set for the quarterfinal showdown between the neighboring rivals.
“I think it’s awesome,” coach Kevin Eck said. “It’s a huge game at a lot of different levels, not the least of which is that we’re right next door. Our guys know their guys. We’ve known each other forever.
“I’m actually looking forward to it.”
#7 Pennsbury 3, #10 Central Bucks West 1 (25-22, 25-22, 22-25, 25-10)
Senior Jim Zaluski led the Falcons at the net with 20 kills while teammate Nate Hall had 10 kills and seven block assists. Sean Kropp added seven kills, and sophomore setter Pat Merrick had 40 assists, seven blocks, two aces and five digs. Eric Tepel led the defense with eight digs and also had two aces.
It took until the fourth game, according to coach Justin Fee, for the Falcons – who have two sophomore outside hitters, a sophomore setter and a sophomore defensive specialist - to play their ‘A’ game.
“We have a lot of really young kids that have been playing,” Fee said. “They’ve been doing really well - they’ve been progressing nicely, but they’re still making 10th grade mistakes.”
In recent weeks, according to Fee, the Falcons have spent a great deal of time working on their timing, tempo and speeding up their offense.
“They’re really starting to get good at it,” the Falcons’ coach said. “At practice last week, it was going really well. We were hitting a lot better, we weren’t making as many errors, and the ball was getting there faster.”
Fee had the feeling during Tuesday’s warm-up that things weren’t exactly going as planned.
“The ball was way too flat,” the Falcons’ coach said. “As the match went on, we just weren’t in sync, and our hitters’ confidence was going down. You could just see it in their facial expressions.”
An adjustment by Merrick in the fourth game made all the difference in the world.
“It’s a young team, and it was a good learning experience,” Fee said.
As a result of the win, the Falcons have earned a rematch with neighboring Council Rock North in Thursday’s quarterfinal round.
“They have weapons all over the place,” Fee said of the Indians. “Obviously, you don’t want to see one of the better teams in the district in an elimination match when you can’t move on, but that’s what we’re faced with, and we have to take it head on and do our absolute best.
“We’re at a point in the season where we’ve really come along in terms of skill and ability, but certain individual players still aren’t playing with the confidence they should be playing with based on the skills they have.”
#9 Haverford 3, #8 Quakertown 1 (25-22, 27-29, 25-14, 25-23)
The Panthers hung tough but couldn’t get over the hump in their opening round match against the ninth-seeded Fords.
Ian Jones led the Panthers at the net with 15 kills while Ryan Mease added 12 kills. Zach Morgan had 11 kills, and Spencer Cysi contributed 10 kills. Nick Grossov chipped in with six kills. Setter Nate Stout was credited with 45 assists.
The Panthers closed out their season with a 9-8 record.
#5 Christopher Dock 3, #12 Central Bucks East 0 (25-22, 25-22, 25-14)
In their program’s first trip to the postseason in a decade, the Patriots gave the Pioneers all they could handle for two games before falling in three on Tuesday night.
“We played well,” coach Rob Minschwaner said. “I’m not complaining.
“We had them on their heels the first two games, but they didn’t fold. They were well-disciplined. They’re a real good team, but our kids played real well. I’m not sure what happened in game three, but the first two games our kids played well.”
Sophomore setter Kyle Dolf was credited with 24 assists. Sophomore Nick Bennett led the Patriots at the net with 11 kills to go along with seven digs. Sophomore libero Mike Donovan had 15 digs.
“Last year he had never played volleyball before,” Minschwaner said of his libero. “Five matches into the season , he was our starting libero.”
Senior Shane Donovan is another newcomer to the sport – he never played a minute of volleyball before going out for the team this year.
“He became our starting opposite,” Minschwaner said. “He did well tonight and had four kills and a block. He’s just a real high energy type of guy.”
Senior Jeff Wolf also made important contributions in his final high school match.
“Jeff really stepped his game up big time tonight,” Minschwaner said. “He was like a sparkplug hitting out of the middle for us.
“He was pounding a lot of balls and playing with a lot of energy.”
The Patriots closed out the season with a 7-10 record.
“It was a great experience,” Minschwaner said of earning a spot in districts. “The first game we lost by three points – seven were missed serves. At the start of the match, they were very nervous, and it showed.
“They played so well but served four in a row out, and still, we hung with them, which shows how well we played.”
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