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ROYERSFORD – The ending came much too soon.The Upper Merion volleyball team lived with the dream of playing for a state title this weekend, but Garden Spot – bearing no resemblance to a fourth seed – had other ideas and sent the Vikings home for the season, thanks to its 3-1 win in a spirited match at Spring-Ford High School on Tuesday night (19-25, 25-17, 28-26, 25-17).
The Vikings lost despite a heroic comeback that saw them rally from an early 9-1 deficit to earn a pair of game points before falling 28-16 in the pivotal third game.
“It’s just a heartbreaker when you work so hard – when you go from 9-1 and then you do so good and everybody is all pumped up, but at the end, you lose it,” junior Alex Galdi said. “They had some shots that no defense could get.
“It’s just really hard.”
Also hard was the fact that the Vikings faced a team in the opening round of states that could well end up playing for the state title. Garden Spot, the defending state runner-up, was upset in the district semis and ended up playing in the consolation game for third place. The coach elected to play his backups in that match, opting for a date with Upper Merion over defending state champion Allentown Central Catholic.
“I told the girls – we were in this to win the state championship,” coach Tony Funsten said. “I told them the other day that this match would be great. If we win it, we’re ready to roll.”
For a while, it looked as though the Vikings might make the choice to play their squad over ACC look very foolish as they gave early indications that they could play with the defending state runner-up. They rallied from an early 4-1 deficit to go on knot the score 6-6 on a Cassidy Koenig push that evoked cheers of ‘She’s a freshman. She’s a freshman’ from the student second.
The Vikings opened up a 13-10 lead after a Liz DiValerio kill, and that lead grew to 15-10 after back-to-back service aces by Devyn Ingram.
“It was right after our warm-up, and we were just really excited and pumped up,” Galdi said of her team’s fast start.
The Vikings, who forced Garden Spot to make some mistakes, led 23-15 after a Galdi block, and they won the game on a DiValerio kill.
Garden Spot came back to win the next game 25-17, and the match came down to the third game. It looked as though Garden Spot was going to roll to an easy win after opening up a 9-1 lead, but the Vikings battled back.
It was a 13-12 game after a Lisa Ridgeway kill, and it was still a one-point game (14-13) after a Koenig dig fell in for a winner. The two teams were deadlocked 14-14 after a DiValerio ace, and the Vikings took their first lead – 15-14 – after another well-placed Koenig push.
Three service points by Ridgeway that included an ace and another Koenig push for a winner put the Vikings on top 19-15. They still led 21-18 after a Galdi kill, and later, a DiValerio kill gave the Vikings a 23-20 advantage.
The Vikings had a pair of game points after a DiValerio kill put them on top 24-22, but they could not finish it out, falling 28-26.
“The turning point was when we lost the third game,” Funsten said. “Either team could have won that, either team could have lost it. We had our chances. We thought we won it once or twice, but they made some great plays.
“It was all about decisions, but that’s what happens in games like that. That was certainly the key to the match.”
Galdi admits it was a struggle playing against a squad loaded with weapons.
“We just needed to use all our shots,” the Vikings’ outside hitter said. “The hitters should hit to certain spots where they know they’ll get a kill. You have to be smart, and serving is important.
“They just played a lot better (as the match went on), and we made mistakes.”
The Vikings didn’t go down easily, but Garden Spot had all the momentum after winning game three to go on top 2-1.
In game three, it was a 9-8 game after a Ridgeway block, but Garden Spot opened up a 16-9 lead on its way to the win.
“It’s very hard,” Funsten said. “We didn’t play our best. It has something to do with them, but we can play better.
“We knew exactly what we were getting into. Really, it comes down to the third game. I really feel as though if we would have won the third game, we would have won the match, but they won the third game, and they won the match. After the first game, they made very few mistakes. Their decision making was very good, and we started making mistakes that helped them.”
Extra points: Galdi led the Vikings with 11 kills while DiValerio had 10 and Ridgeway and Koenig each had eight. Ridgeway also had 12 digs and Koenig, 16 assists and 14 digs. Kate DeLone led the defense with 29 digs while Ingram had 18. Kim Landmesser had 15 assists.
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