Upper Dublin earned a win over Southern Lehigh in Saturday’s PIAA 5A quarterfinal contest. Photos provided courtesy of Jon Sklut. Pennsbury saw its season come to an end in a 6A quarterfinal game. Photos courtesy of Darryl Rule of J&D Photography.
PIAA 5A quarterfinal
#1-1 UPPER DUBLIN 3, #11-1 SOUTHERN LEHIGH 0 (25-22, 25-22, 25-13)
Disbelief.
That, according to senior captain Ellie Cheifetz, summed up the Cardinals’ emotions after sweeping a Southern Lehigh team that brought undefeated record into Saturday’s state quarterfinal.
“We are all in disbelief,” Cheifetz said. “I feel like today we didn’t really go into the game with expectations. 
Obviously, we were trying to win and everything, but we were like – ‘It was a great run. We made it so far already.’
“And (coach) Paul was like – ‘This is the cherry on top. You girls have done great. Just go out there and do your best.’ We all went out there thinking, ‘This team is 22-0, they have a Virginia Tech commit. They look insane.’”
The Cards may have been in awe of the Spartans, but they won a tightly contested first set 25-22.
“I knew we were guaranteed at least three more sets,” Cheifetz said. “We ended up taking them in the second set and the third set, and they just fell apart, and we just kept it going until the game was completely over.”
In the end, all of Southern Lehigh’s wins without a loss might well have worked against the District 11 champions.
“I saw that they were hot,” UD coach Paul Choi said of Southern Lehigh. “But that also could be a little downfall because we lost plenty of times, we’ve gone to five before, so we’ve had a lot of lessons that we’ve learned throughout, and we know how to come back from being down.
“I think when Southern Lehigh was down 0-2, they kind of didn’t have enough practice in those situations.”
Cheifetz acknowledged UD’s experience in five-set matches paid dividends.
“At the beginning of the season, we had a couple of five-set matches, and we lost them,” the senior captain said. “Those five-set matches build up your endurance to keep your head in the game.
“We really showed that today. We just kept it all together the entire time. We didn’t zone out, we didn’t drop even when we lost a couple of points. In those five-set games, we learned how to keep going, especially when times are rough, and now we know how to keep going when times are really good.”
The Cards were led at the net by Kate DiMartile with 13 kills (.257 hitting percentage), Casey Calvano with 10 kills (.296 hitting percentage) and Izzy Driehuis with seven kills (.375 hitting percentage).
Defensively, senior libero Alisa Zeng led the way with 21 digs. Setters Parker Levin and Eva Hutchman combined for 23 assists.
“We came to play,” Choi said. “I think this game was probably one of our cleanest games that we’ve had. Everybody did their roles, their responsibilities and followed the game plan of how we wanted to attack the team.
“Our hitters were super efficient, and we served really well and passed really well and did a really good job up at the net.”
By the numbers: Upper Dublin: Alisa Zeng (21 digs, 5 assists, 3 aces), Casey Calvano (10 kills, 3 aces, 5 digs), Eva Hutchman (9 assists), Izzy Driehuis (7 kills, 3 digs, 2 blocks), Kate DiMartile (13 kills, 2 aces, 7 digs), Parker Levin (14 assists, 7 digs, 2 aces).
Up next: Upper Dublin will face a familiar opponent in Tuesday’s PIAA 5A semifinal contest when the Cards do battle with District 1 runner-up Gwynedd Mercy Academy. The Cards and Falcons have split their previous two meetings this season with GMA winning the first match early in the regular season and UD winning the second in the District 1 5A title game.
“We’ve never gone this far,” Cheifetz said. “That’s what Paul said – ‘Everything we do now is a cherry on top. Every practice, every game, every set – this is all extra.’ I feel like to us – it’s not extra, it’s our season still.”
PIAA Class 6A quarterfinal
#1-1 Spring-Ford 3, #1-5 Pennsbury 1 (22-25, 25-12, 25-13, 25-18)
Wednesday, Nov. 11
PIAA 5A opening round
#1-5 Pennsbury 3, 12-1 Central 0 (25-17, 25-14, 25-4)
The visiting Falcons rolled to a sweep of Central in Wednesday’s opening round.
By the numbers: Pennsbury: Katie Mishler (18 assists, 4 kills, 4 aces), Reagan Perate (12 kills, 2 aces), Madara Bungs (10 kills, 4 aces), Emilia Guzdziol (5 kills), Violet Rowbotham (8 kills), Olivia Jedynak (2 aces), Jules Ruckel (2 aces)
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