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TOWAMENCIN – Craig Schneider shook his head. His Neshaminy volleyball squad had just seen its season come to an end at the hands of third-seeded Christopher Dock, and the Redskins were ultimately doomed by the float serves of Travis Moyer.
Dock’s sophomore libero stepped to the service line with the Redskins on top 23-18 in game two. He served out the game, and the Pioneers’ went on to sweep the Redskins 3-0 (25-22, 25-23, 25-16).
“It was a deep floater, and it was just killing us,” Schneider said. “We worked on it, and it was a very tough serve. When we got the pass and set, then our hitters weren’t connecting.
“That’s the game – everything has to work together. We didn’t make that many errors, but we made them at critical points. Game two was critical. We just couldn’t put them away. That’s been our problem all year against really good teams.”
The Redskins, who battled Dock tough before falling in game one, looked as though they were onto something in the second game.
They rallied from an 8-5 deficit to knot the score after a Greg Korhonen block, and back-to-back kills by Ethan Chase gave Neshaminy a 10-8 edge. The Redskins led 15-11 after Ethan Mawhinney dumped it over the net for a winner, and a pair of Dock hitting errors upped that lead to 17-11.
The Redskins still led 23-17 after a Korhonen kill, but Dock’s Clint Martin delivered a kill that brought Moyer to the service line.
Things were never quite the same again. Three Redskin hitting errors as well as kills by Ben Richter and Ryan Buckwalter knotted the score 23-23, prompting Schneider to call a timeout.Dock’s A.J. Longacre ignited the Dock faithful with a monster block out of the timeout, and the Pioneers won it when a Neshaminy hit sailed out of play.
“Serve receive is the ultimate thing we practice,” Chase said. “It was a good serve, but we do a lot of practice against floaters. We just couldn’t pull it together, and we couldn’t get the pass. When you don’t get passes, you can’t hit.”
Losing game two cut the heart out of the Redskins, who were just two points away from winning the game but couldn’t close it out.
“You don’t want to count it as a win already, but it obviously was close,” Chase said. “That close and to get it taken away – it hurts a lot.
“To win the second game would have been a big turning point in our favor.”
In game three, the Redskins battled gamely, rallying from a six-point deficit to pull to within three (16-13), but they would get no closer, falling 25-16.
Mawhinney and Chase led the Redskins with 10 kills each. Buckwalter paced Dock with 14 kills while Longacre added seven kills and two blocks. Buckwalter also led the defense with 10 digs to go along with two aces. Ethan Martin had 34 assists.
Dock will face Pennridge in a semifinal contest at Council Rock South on Tuesday, 6 p.m.
The Rams needed four games to down SOL foe Council Rock North (25-20, 25-23, 15-25, 25-19). Zech States had a big night for Pennridge, contributing 24 kills, 12 digs and four blocks. Austin Jacoby had 18 kills while Jon Algeo had six kills and seven blocks. Cody Davis led the defense with 19 digs. Cory Chinnici had three kills and four blocks. Will Jager had 48 assists for the Rams, who improved to 17-0.In other SOL action, Pennsbury swept Quakertown 3-0 (25-18, 25-9, 25-12). Joe Yasalonis led the Falcons with 13 kills (.556 hitting efficiency), one ace, one dig and three blocks. Jeremy Rhoads added 12 kills (.476 hitting efficiency), four aces, three digs and one block. Ryan Burns had 37 assists, one kill, three digs and one block. Dom Tricoche had nine kills, three digs and one block. John Dunn had two aces and two digs. Justin Mueller had seven digs for the Falcons, who will face William Tennent in a semifinal contest at Council Rock South on Tuesday, 7:30 p.m.
Tennent eliminated Souderton in a convincing 3-0 win (25-17, 25-22, 25-14). Mike Bowler led the Panthers with 10 kills and five digs. Ruvin Volosevich and Matt Hartman both added eight kills and Kyle Sussman, six kills. Hartman also had four blocks. Chris Kazlauskas had five kills. Shane Cooney led the defense with nine digs.
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