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QUAKERTOWN – So what if someone had told the North Penn volleyball team that it would be playing in the championship match of the 20-team Quakertown Tournament on Saturday?
“I would have said, ‘Stop messing with me,’” senior Kevin Cannon said.
“I would have said, ‘No way,’” teammate Kyle Sinding said.
Yet, that’s exactly where the Knights found themselves at the end of a long day on Saturday, and no one was pretending it wasn’t a surprise that they were wearing the silver medals, finishing second only to a Hempfield squad that is ranked fifth in the state in the latest PVCA poll.
“We were anticipating getting out of here early, I will say that,” Cannon said. “I think we were like, ‘Oh my god, we’re still here.’”
The Knights compiled a 7-1 mark in pool play, winning a pair from Cheltenham, Liberty and Bensalem. They split their match with Haverford.
“We kind of played slow in pool play,” Cannon said.
The turning point may have been the Knights’ 25-18 win over Bethlehem Catholic in the opening round of the playoffs.
“I think it was our excitement and energy that pulled us through our Becca game,” Sinding said.
“We had a rest before that game, and we were real sluggish,” Cannon said. “We were down, and right around 15 points we overtook them and didn’t look back.”
That big win set up a showdown against Council Rock North in the semifinals, and things didn’t look all that promising after the Knights dropped the first game of the match 25-20.
“I thought it was a single elimination – I thought it was only one game, and I was walking off the court,” Cannon said.
Given a reprieve, the Knights won the next two games, eking out a 26-24 win in game two and a 19-17 win in the third and deciding game.
“We came out, and they weren’t expecting us to have the energy,” Sinding said. “I think they expected us to go down easily.
“I was talking to a ref before this (championship) game, and he said, ‘I thought you could put a fork in North Penn,’ but we pulled it out.”
The Knights fell 25-17 in game one against Hempfield but began to gain confidence in the second game. They trailed by just one (9-8) after a Sinding kill, and it was still a one-point game (10-9) after a Chris Davidson kill.
A block by sophomore Scott Dickenson knotted the score 11-11, and a Matt Elias ace put the Knights on top by one. They still led 13-12 after a Davidson kill. The two teams were deadlocked 16-16 after a Sinding kill, and the Knights took an 18-17 lead on a Hempfield hitting error.
Hempfield went back on top 20-18, but a Sinding kill pulled the Knights to within one before Hempfield closed it out with a 5-2 run.
“This proves to us that we can do it,” Cannon said. “When Bhavit (Vora) and Matt (White) – our middles – got injured, Kyle and I were like, ‘Oh no, what are we going to do?’ We thought our season was over.
“We just hung in that second game with the second ranked team in the state, and we’re not even ranked.”
“I think beating Souderton pulled us together,” Sinding added of the Knights’ first match after losing their two middles. “Beating Quakertown pulled us together, and now today.
“I think this is definitely a look up. We were down because we lost our middles, and now we know we can do it.”
At the helm for the Knights at Saturday’s tournament was junior varsity coach Bryan Yost.
“This was unbelievable,” he said. “As the day progressed, I think they just meshed together and started playing together more.
“The energy every game was better and better. They kept each other in the game with the energy. They started cheering more, the bench was loud, and by the end, they were just one big unit playing together.
“I hope it just keeps rolling. Everyone is in high spirits. We just played the fifth ranked team in the state and did well against them. Everyone has a smile on their face walking off the court, so I think it’s going to continue.”
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