New Hope-Solebury advanced to Saturday’s PIAA 2A quarterfinals while Council Rock North saw its successful season come to an end. New Hope-Solebury/Tacony Charter photos provided courtesy of Karla Donohoe. (New Hope-Solebury championship team photo provided courtesy of NHS girls' volleyball) CR North/Elizabethtown photos courtesy of Jon Sklut. Check back for galleries of both matches.
CLASS 4A
#3-3 ELIZABETHTOWN 3, #1-2 COUNCIL ROCK NORTH 2 (25-23, 16-25, 25-19, 25-27, 15-11)
Their seasons were remarkably similar.
Both Elizabethtown and Rock North rolled through the regular season without a loss. Both suffered their only loss of the season in their respective district tournaments with Rock North falling to Bishop Shanahan in the district title game while Elizabethtown lost to eventual District 3 champion Hempfield in the district semis.
On paper, it figured to be a good match. On the court, it may have been even better with the visiting Bears eking out a win in the grueling five-set match that brought an end to the Indians’ historic season.
Ashleigh Adams shattered the program’s career kill record, finishing with 1,921 kills. It would seem to be little more than a formality for Adams to earn her third straight all-state selection, also a school record.
Senior setter Kate Logan closed out her career with over 1,000 assists. She dished out 45 assists in Tuesday’s match and also had eight digs and two kills. Six Rock North players earned all-conference honors.
Adams was once again a dominant force all over the court, finishing with 36 kills, 18 digs, four blocks, two assists and three aces. Junior outside Ainsley Jordan added 10 digs, eight kills, four aces and a block. Sophomore libero Emma McNulty had 15 digs and one assist. Senior outside Julia Murphy had two kills, one block and one dig, and senior setter Becca Wintjen added five digs. Also contributing were Sophie Lentz (three kills) and Bella Slough (two kills).
Council Rock North closed out its successful season with a 21-2 record, the SOL National Conference title and a District One 4A runner-up finish.
CLASS 2A
#1-1 NEW HOPE-SOLEBURY 3, #12-1 TACONY CHARTER 0 (25-5, 25-5, 25-17)
And then there were eight.
Eight teams in the entire state are still standing in PIAA Class 2A, and New Hope-Solebury is one of them.
“Our girls are still standing, and I’m so proud of them,” coach Chris Marchok said. “Our kids played well, and those kids, God bless them, tried their hardest, but when we’re used to facing Plymouth Whitemarsh and Hatboro-Horsham and Upper Dublin and Abington – it used to be we were facing one of the few really, really good teams whenever we got to the playoffs.
“Now, every day in the SOL is a grind. It shows in the way the kids are able to approach these three playoff games. They approach them matter-of-factly. It’s just another game, which is really a good thing for them to be able to do.”
The Lions held their own in the SOL American Conference, compiling a 5-7 record in conference play (12-9 overall).
Tuesday’s win came on the heels of their win over MaST Charter in the District One 2A final.
“Again, we were taking our lessons from some pretty good Quad A teams all year,” Marchok said. “We are thrilled to be able to have to compete our best every game. When you work so hard and you’ve got to bust your tail just to compete, that’s when you learn about yourself, and that’s what our kids did all year this year.
“I know in the different conferences across the SOL – there are good coaches everywhere. When we’re competing against those people, they’re teaching me. When they’re taking us out to the woodshed, they’re teaching me how to be better. Our kids got used to the triple towers from Hatboro, they got used to the fact that you just couldn’t get a ball on the ground against Plymouth Whitemarsh, they got used to Kenya (Lucas) from Abington who jumps out of the gym. They just got used to having to deal with it.”
So when the postseason rolled around, the Lions were prepared.
In Tuesday’s state opener, the Lions received contributions up and down their lineup, beginning with outside hitters Mia Chuma and Amy Tao.
“The one name every other coach is always going to know is number 18, Mia Chuma,” Marchok said. “She is our big outside hitter. If I were guessing, figuring she only played half of the match tonight, my guess is she had 10 kills.”
“Having said that, Amy Tao – we call her AT - is a really smart, a really athletic kid. She’s not six feet tall, but AT brings a very effective game.”
Lilly Kraemer and Riri D’Agostino anchor the middle of the net.
“Lilly Kraemer, in the last year and half, has grown into a really dangerous middle for us and a kid that has a ton of heart,” Marchok said. “I’ve got my softball pitcher – Riri D’Agostino – who herself had two or three kills tonight and a couple of blocks in the middle. She plays a much more cerebral game. She doesn’t have the power that a Lilly does, but she certainly has the brains. She’s a really bright kid who plays a very smart middle.”
Splitting setting duties in the win were senior Violet Glick and sophomore Anna Leasure.
“They both set tonight and set really well,” Marchok said.
At libero is freshman Emma Viehweger, and her story, according to the Lions’ coach, exemplifies just what sets this team apart.
“This is the crux of why we are where we are,” Marchok said. “We came into this year with no libero, none. There was nobody to go back there. We had this little freshman who is really an outside hitter, and on a team that didn’t have 14 or 18 (Chuma or Tao), she would have been a starting outside hitter for us. Not overly tall but really powerful and well skilled.
“I said, ‘Em, you’re not getting any playing time out there. How would you like to play libero?’ She looks at me and she laughs and said, ‘Are you serious?’ I said, ‘You bet I am.’ She was like, ‘Okay then, let’s go,’ so this kid who was an outside hitter – she’s back there trying her hardest, learning libero in the SOL, and she’s getting it down and getting it down.”
Two weeks into the season Viehweger broke her finger and was told she would need to have it in a cast for six weeks.
“We’re assuming she’s out for the whole season, and we go looking for somebody else,” Marchok said. “I love these other kids, but it just wasn’t working.
“Two weeks in, she sees that it’s not working, and she gets her parents to take her back to the same doctor without me knowing this. She goes to the doctor and she says, ‘Are you sure I can’t play?’ He said, ‘You need the cast on,’ and she said, ‘I know that, but are you sure I can’t play?’ He said, ‘You’ve got the cast on, so you’re not going to hurt it. If you want to give it a shot, sure.’”
Marchok spoke with Viehweger’s parents.
“I told them, ‘I like winning as much as the next guy, but my goal is to never, ever, ever hurt the kid. If we decided to play her, it’s with your blessing. We can go winless the rest of the season if the alternative is hurting her to get wins. As long as she’s playing with the cast on, you go get them,’” Marchok said.
Two weeks after being told she was finished for the season, Viehweger was back on the court playing with a cast on her broken finger.
“This kid has a heart of gold, she’s a competitor, she’s playing totally out of position, and she’s playing totally, totally 100 percent as hard as she can the whole time. Without her back there, I’m not sure where we are.”
Also contributing for the Lions in Tuesday’s win were defensive specialist Aubrey Turner and right-side hitter Emma Fitzsimmons.
“The story of our team – we fought through COVID,” Marchok said. “At the beginning of the season, we lost a bunch of stuff because of the hurricane. It took us a couple of weeks, and we’re finally getting into it and playing as a team, and boom, COVID hits us, and we ended up just getting a little bit out of sync.
“We had probably a 10-day period where different people were out – they were close contacts, they were testing positive. Kids that had been vaccinated were testing positive. It was craziness. Once they got back, it probably took us a week to get in the groove again. For me, that’s another reason why it’s so sweet seeing them play like this because they fought through Emma breaking her finger, they fought through the COVID craziness, and they fought through the SOL. It’s been a long season, but it’s rewarding right now.”
New Hope-Solebury will face District 3 champion Trinity in a quarterfinal match on Saturday.
“We know we will face some really stiff competition on Saturday,” Marchok said. “But honestly, I look at it – we may face someone like Hatboro. Okay, so it will be the third time we played Hatboro or Plymouth Whitemarsh, but it’s not going to be the first time, so our girls will be ready to compete.”
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