Council Rock South edged third-seeded Haverford 3-2 to earn a spot in Thursday’s District 1 4A title game at Harriton High School (7 p.m.) Photos courtesy of Jon Sklut. Check back for a gallery photos: https://solsports.zenfolio.com/f214243981
District 1 4A
#3 COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 3, HAVERFORD 2 (25-20-, 21-25, 22-25, 25-21, 15-13)
The Golden Hawks advanced to Thursday’s district title match with a marathon five-set win over the visiting Fords. They won the first set but dropped the next two and
then staged a gutsy comeback, winning the next two. The win also ensured the Hawks a berth in the PIAA 4A State Tournament. It was reason to celebrate.
"The fact that they had just made it this far - you would have thought they won the district final tonight," Rock South coach Carrie Allen said. "Especially because it was Haverford."
The Golden Hawks faced the Fords in a regular season match and won that one 3-2 as well, but they had dropped a match to the Fords in tournament play.
"It was kind of 1-1 going into last night, and they were pumped," Allen said. "On top of making states, on top of making the district final, they were thrilled."
According to Allen, there were a lot of similarities between Monday's match and the regular season match.
"In terms of a key, we really had to try and keep them from running their offense," Allen said. "They have a couple really big hitters, really, really talented players. If we could keep them out of system, we had a much better chance, but that also meant we had to minimize our own errors because big hitters typically mean a big block, so we had a lot of work we had to do offensively as well.
"The sets we dropped we made more mistakes. We served out of bounds a few times at crucial moments. We had a serve receive run where they got five or six points in a row and that we had to fight back from and a couple of poorly timed hitting errors as well. The sets we won we were doing a better job of minimizing those errors on our part."
Edan Kauer was a force both on attack and defense, leading the Golden Hawks with 17 kills to go along with 21 digs. Olivia DeSaro also had a double-double, finishing with 12 kills and 10 digs to go along with one block. Nala Kauer added nine kills – including match point – and three digs, and Yana Kotlyarenko had five kills. Rachael Buchnik also had five kills as well as one block, and Kristina Shumakov had two kills and one block.
Libero Cadence Palmer was a defensive catalyst, finishing with a team-high 36 digs as well as four aces. Cassidy Melnick added 11 digs, and Halle Wilson had four digs.
"So far in the playoffs, our defense has been playing really, really well," Allen said. "Because we don't have much size, we can't afford to not play good defense, especially against some of these bigger teams.
"I don't know if this was our best defensive win yet because Saturday (the win over Bishop Shanahan) was a really big defensive win for us too. This whole playoffs they've
been playing fantastic defense. That's the one thing I keep telling them - their defense has been lights out."
Setters Ashlyn Dinan (26 assists) and Rachel Khelmer (14 assists) combined for 40 assists.
"Right now they're playing like such a team, and I'm super grateful that they are because that's what they're going to have to do to keep doing well," Allen said. "I have a big senior class - I did lose a couple of seniors last year, but so many of these kids have played together for so long.
"There are times where you would swear the ball was going to drop, but we have managed to stay in the rally if not win the point."
Council Rock South (19-2, 12-0 SOL) will face the winner of Tuesday’s other semifinal pitting #1 Unionville against #13 Spring-Ford. Unionville handed Rock South one of its only two losses on Sept. 30, winning in straight sets.
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