#3 Souderton 3, #6 North Penn 1 (12-25, 25-22, 25-15, 25-19)
Luke Burns was having a hard time trying to find the words to describe his emotions after Thursday’s big win.
“I can’t even explain it,” the Indians’ junior setter said. “It felt so good. It’s how I wanted to play. It’s how I wanted it to be.”
Burns, who set for Souderton’s jayvee this season, was thrust into emergency duty for the Indians when senior setter Eric Long had an appendectomy. He certainly didn’t look the part of a back-up in Thursday’s match. All told, the Indians had 52 kills. The junior setter had a hand in most of those.
“Luke coming in as a junior hasn’t played with these guys before,” coach Brad Garrett said. “Council Rock South (in the opening round) was sloppy, but yesterday at practice we worked real hard, got him a lot of reps.
“He came out looking pretty comfortable, and the biggest thing was the guys trust him, and not just his setting but his defense - he had a couple of stuff blocks.”
That’s not to say there weren’t some concerns heading into Thursday’s showdown – there were, especially after the Indians weren’t especially sharp in their 3-1 opening round win over Council Rock South.
“I had a lot of doubts,” senior Cody Leatherman said. “Our first game against South with our new setter was a little rough. We had a hard time adjusting.
“Our first game tonight against North Penn – the same thing happened. We had to adjust, and North Penn came out swinging.
“But after that second game, we started connecting, we picked up energy and we had a great game plan. Confidence is key. A junior new setter coming into a big game like this – that’s all he needs.”
Souderton got big contributions from all of its net players with Trevor Bishop and Leatherman leading the way with 14 kills each. Chris Kluka and Andrew Diesel both had 11 kills in the middle. Diesel also had four blocks.
“They really didn’t have an answer for Kluka or Andrew,” Garrett said. “(North Penn’s) Evan Thompson is a great player, but he’s only in the game half the time.
“We did a good job of getting our middles involved and kept them off balance. Credit to Luke that he knew that’s where we had an advantage, and we got a lot of swings out of our middles.
“Our passing was good. I thought Christian (Benner) played a good game. Unless the pass is where it’s supposed to be you can’t run the middle. Really, everyone just played well.”
Christian Benner, who plays libero, led the Indians defensively with 27 digs.
This win, according to Benner, was especially sweet.
“I would say out of the whole season – being here at home and actually having a nice crowd come out tonight and then losing the first game and having to come back and win the next three – it was good for all of us to see what we can actually do and what we can accomplish,” he said.
Things certainly didn’t start out on a promising note for the Indians as the Knights sprinted to a 14-5 lead in game one and rolled to the 25-12 route.
“Game one was what we expected really,” Garrett said. “They were on fire. When you play a team three times – obviously, they wanted to win.
“We didn’t play poorly the first game. They just came out on fire, but the next two games we settled down. You could see our guys settle in and say, ‘We’re okay. We can play here.’ We tried to get them out of their comfort zone with some of the things we did and it seemed to work.”
Momentum began to swing in the Indians’ favor in game two. The Knights actually led 10-7 after an Andy Willits kill, but the Indians knotted the score on a Kluka kill. A Leatherman kill was followed by another Kluka kill, and the Indians led 12-10. A pair of Knight miscues allowed the Indians to extend that lead to 14-10.
Souderton led 22-14 after a Leatherman block, and a Bishop winner made it a 20-12 game before Evan Thompson delivered a block in the middle for the Knights. It was a 22-18 game after back-to-back big plays by Chris Davidson – the first a kill and the second a block. A Matt Elias block made it a 22-19 game, and after a Souderton miscue and a Davidson kill, the Knights pulled to within one, 22-21.
Diesel delivered a winner out of the middle and Bishop followed with a kill as the Indians went on to earn a 25-22 win.
If Burns was feeling the heat of playing in such a big match, he certainly didn’t let it show.
“I like the pressure,” he said. “Before the game started, I was a little bit nervous, but it disappeared when we started playing – once I’m out of my head and I’m playing.
“I dreamed about this. I was thinking about the games before Council Rock South, and it didn’t go the way I wanted it to, but this game today – we got it.”
In game three, the Indians jumped out of the gate to an 11-3 lead and never looked back. They won it when a Leatherman serve hit the tape and dropped onto the court for an ace. Suddenly, everything was going Souderton’s way.
“We realized we didn’t want to go home, especially against one of our rivals,” Benner said. “We definitely wanted to keep it going and get far in districts.
“We’re a really close team. We all know each other really well, and we’re all really close friends in school, and that helps a lot. When we were down early, we were all picking each other up.”
In game four, Souderton opened up an 11-8 lead after a Diesel kill, but the Knights knotted the score 12-12 after an Elias block. North Penn went on to open up a 15-12 lead after a Mark Kim service ace and extended that lead to 16-12 after a Souderton hit out of play.
The Indians regrouped, knotting the score 19-19 after a Benner dig ricocheted off a Knight backrow player for a winner. A Knight hit out of play was followed by a Leatherman winner.
Four straight Knight errors sealed the win for the Indians.
“It’s very disappointing,” Knight coach Kevin Eck said. “We had five losses this season, and in three of those, we beat ourselves, and tonight is one of them. The first time we played these guys here it was the same way.
“I think we thought too much. You can’t over think things – sometimes you just have to play. It was there for them to take, but they just gave it away”
Davidson led the Knights with 15 kills and seven digs. Elias had 27 assists and six blocks. Willits added nine kills, and Kim led the defense with eight digs.
The Knights closed out their season with a 13-5 record.
#2 Council Rock North 3, #7 Pennsbury 0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-21)
The Indians continued to make history when – for the first time since the school split – they guaranteed themselves a berth in the state tournament as well as Tuesday night’s district semifinals.
“One of the things we talked about the last couple of days, especially after winning against Abington and knowing we were going to see Pennsbury, we really tried to get the boys focused on - just because we beat them the first two times doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy this time,” coach Susan Kim said. “We know every time we saw them they got better, which is what’s going to happen, especially with a great program like Pennsbury.
“The boys were excited to see them again at home and get the opportunity to knock them out of district playoffs and move on.”
For the Indians, Dan Ford contributed 14 assists, seven kills and five digs, and John Whitman had 15 assists, three kills and eight digs. Hunter Stevens led the Indians at the net with 15 kills and four blocks. Ryan Garven – just back from an injury – had seven kills and nine digs. Garrison Lovely added five kills, and Nick Siokalo had four kills. Chris Richards led the defense with 16 digs while Eric Stettner had eight digs.
Rock North will face third-seeded Souderton in a semifinal match on Tuesday.
#1 Pennridge 3, #9 Haverford 0 (25-23, 25-17, 25-21)
The defending district champions rolled to a sweep of the visiting Fords, earning a spot in the semifinals as well as a berth in the state tournament.
Jake Braun led the Rams defensively with 15 digs. Setter Matt Trumbower had 41 assists. Erik Moyer led the Rams at the net with 15 kills and three blocks to go along with three aces. Mike Shenk had 10 kills, and Derek Kemmerer added eight kills. Ryan Chinnici had five kills, and Matt Beck, four kills. Kalin Nelson had eight digs.
#5 Christopher Dock 3, #4 Neshaminy 2
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