William Tennent earned a hard-fought win to clinch the district’s third and final berth in the PIAA 3A Tournament. Photos provided courtesy of Jon Sklut. Check back for a gallery of photos: https://solsports.zenfolio.com/f111054175 (Team photo provided by Tennent volleyball)
District 1 3A third place
#6 WILLIAM TENNENT 3, #1 HAVERFORD 2 (19-25, 25-20, 15-25, 25-10, 15-11)
It had been a while between trips to the state tournament for the Panthers – eight years to be exact. It took a gutsy five-set win over the top-seeded Fords in Thursday’s third place match to end that drought.
“Getting to states is definitely a big deal,” senior Anthony Buono said. “At the beginning of the season, our goal, as seniors, was lead this team the best we can and set goals for ourselves.
“The goal really was to win districts, and unfortunately, that didn’t happen, but we got the next best thing, which is making states. It’s a really big deal for our school too because our school doesn’t make states very often.”
The Panthers were coming off a 3-0 loss to second-seeded Pennridge on Tuesday.
“We had a chip on our shoulder tonight knowing for the seniors this could be our last game, so we all wanted to go out with a bang,” senior Connor Tucholski said. “I think we all went out the best we could. We got down early, but we kept fighting, and we made the best of it, and it worked.”
After being swept by Pennridge in Tuesday’s semifinals, the Panthers found themselves in a must-win contest against the district’s top seed. They dropped the first set and trailed 2-1 after three sets.
“We went down early, and we were really flat,” Tennent coach Jim Creighton said. “We kind of worked our way back into it.
“I’m really proud of the kids, and it was good for our seniors to step up. I think that was the biggest thing. We haven’t really been pressured a ton, so it was good to see that.”
The Panthers – who upset third-seeded Bensalem in a second round match – didn’t have an easy road, but they would not be denied. They hadn’t forgotten the disappointing ending to last year’s season when the Panthers – seeded third – fell to sixth-seeded Council Rock North in the second round.
“Some people would say that last year was one of our best teams in school history,” Tucholski said. “Some of the (leaders) didn’t step up they way they should have. Our goal this year was to lead the team as seniors and get everyone going.
“Going into the season, we didn’t really know what we were going to do with it. We wanted to make the best of it. We’ve got the talent. We’ve got a very good front row, some of the top defense in the league we think. We just go out there every game, try our best, try and win as many as we can just so it’s not our last game.”
The key, according to Buono, is playing with energy and communication.
“Once you get to the playoffs, all the teams are going to be pretty even,” Buono said. “They’re going to be really, really good teams, so you have to play the mental side of the game, not just physical. You have to be talking with your team, leading your team and just communicating the best you can.”
In Thursday’s marathon match, Tucholski led the way at the net, finishing with a team-high 18 kills. David Dziekonski also had double-digit kills with 10, and Eric Korchuk had seven kills.
“The final four was definitely in our sights since the beginning,” Creighton said. “We knew we had some work to do. We had a lot of injuries during the year, so our seed dropped lower than we expected.
“We wanted to be here even after last year because, again, injuries kind of curtailed us last year. We’re excited to get here, we’re happy.”
William Tennent (15-5, 11-3 SOL) will face the District 3 champion in the opening round of the PIAA 3A Tournament.
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