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#11 Plymouth Whitemarsh 3, #6 Council Rock North 1 (25-17, 12-25, 25-16, 25-10)
NEWTOWN - Meghan Lawrence certainly knows how to celebrate.
Consider only what the PW senior does when teammate Devon Maugle slams down a kill.
“I do a handstand and click my feet,” Lawrence said with a laugh.
Lawrence and her teammates had plenty of reasons to celebrate after Thursday night’s second round upset of the defending district runner-up Indians.
“This is really exciting,” Maugle said. “This is the furthest we ever got because every year we lost in the second round. To make it this far and to keep going is really exciting.”
A key to the win, according to the senior star, was the Colonials’ response to Rock North’s convincing win in game two.
“We had to keep our heads high,” Maugle said. “If they got a point on us, we had to come back right away. We couldn’t get ourselves in a hole.
“The second game we let our heads down because we lost, but all the rest of the games, we kept our heads up and got sideouts and kept going back and forth.”
On the other side of the court, the Indians – who entered the postseason with hopes of duplicating last year’s success – were left to deal with the reality that their season had ended much sooner than they had hoped.
“I think what it came down to was we made mistakes, which is going to happen,” Rock North coach Kelsey Lynch said. “However, the difference was at the end when it came down to dealing with the pressure – we made mistakes that we just couldn’t come back from.”
Both coaches made reference to calls down the stretch that didn’t favor Rock North.
“We got a little lucky there,” PW coach Michael Nguyen said. “It just seemed that some of the calls went our way at the end, but I believe you can make your own luck too.”
PW’s luck was Rock North’s misfortune, and one of the game’s biggest calls – or absence of a call – came with PW on top 19-18 and a Rock North hit out of play that Rock North coaches, players and fans alike believed was touched by a PW player.
Lynch implored the officials to call a tip. To no avail, and the Colonials led 20-18.
“Those moments were kind of game-changing moments,” the Indians’ coach said. “Those moments would have been good opportunities to come back. I think the kids got upset, and we weren’t able to rebound. I didn’t have any timeouts left, and I think the kids started to play tense.
“But as I told the kids – that last game, those last moments do not define the season we had. This is a heck of a group of young ladies, teammates, athletes. I know they’re devastated. I still want to come back and have practice tomorrow.
“It’s been a really great run. We’re shocked. It’s probably not going to hit home until tomorrow.”
The match actually began to slip away from the Indians before that pivotal call. The Indians knotted the score 16-16 in game four after a Bailey Dowd kill, but on a Colonial hit out of play, the Indians were whistled for a net violation. Instead of leading by one, the Indians trailed by one.
A net serve by the Colonials knotted the score, but the Indians returned the favor with a miscue of their own, putting PW on top 18-17. A Colonial hitting error knotted the score, and another Indians net serve put the Colonials on top by one.
Then came the ‘no-touch’ call that seemed to forever turn the tide. PW’s Alex Griffin slammed down a kill out of the timeout, and that was followed by three straight Rock North hitting errors. Again, there was a questionable call on a ball ruled out, but by this time, the Indians were reeling.
“Those calls – I think that’s what got to us,” Rock North senior Rachel Friedman said. “That’s when we were really angry.”
“We kept saying, ‘We can do it, we can do it. This is our game,’” senior Dani Borgia added. “But it just didn’t happen.”
In line with the way things were going for the Indians, it was their net serve that gave the Colonials’ match point.
“I feel like we were flustered,” Friedman said. “We were too tense – we couldn’t really make a pass, and our serving was off.”
There may have been early signs of trouble for the Indians, who struggled in game one and fell 25-17. It looked as though they found their stride when they coasted to a 25-12 win in the second game with Rachel McLaughlin McManis delivering a winner for game point.
“Maybe we were a little cocky at some points,” Borgia said. “After we smoked them in the second game, it was like, ‘Oh, the third game is no big deal. We got this.’”
The Colonials obviously had other ideas, jumping out to a 6-1 lead after a Rock North hit out of play. The Indians battled back to take an 8-7 lead, but a net serve knotted the score.
Lawrence stepped to the service line and reeled off eight straight points.
“The second game we just got down on ourselves,” Lawrence said. “We got really quiet, and in the third game, we knew we had to get excited and pumped up.”
Included in that run were a service ace and the match’s most definitive kill from Maugle, who skied above the net and slammed the ball straight down on the court.
“We have to make sure the energy is high,” Maugle said. “If one person is down, we have to bring them up or else everyone is going to fall apart.”
Nothing picks a team up quite as quickly as an eight-point service run, and the Colonials rode that run to a 25-16 win.
That set the stage for game four and a big PW victory.
“Each opponent is our toughest opponent, especially now that playoffs have started,” Nguyen said. “It was great to see all the hard work the girls put forth throughout the season show on the court.”
Maugle led PW with 15 kills, four aces, 3.5 blocks and 15 digs while Griffin added 10 kills, five digs and 2.5 blocks. Lawrence had eight kills, three aces, five blocks and six digs. Dana Wisniewski chipped in with three kills and 2.5 blocks out of the middle. Setter Sally Kijak had 31 assists, one ace and six digs, and libero Anna Waltz had 15 digs.
“We all really came together as a team, especially for this postseason,” Griffin said. “We practice really hard, and we’ve all worked on our digging, our passing and our communication on the floor, and I think that really helped our team out tonight.”
Friedman led the Indians with 10 kills and 16 digs. Dowd added nine kills and four blocks. Caroline Anderson had six kills, two blocks and 11 digs. Borgia had 22 digs. Amy Malakoff had 22 assists and 12 digs while McLaughlin McManis had three blocks.
While the Colonials advanced to the district quarterfinals, the Indians saw their successful season come to an end.
“This will hit us tomorrow when we drive home after school,” Friedman said. “It really sucks. We’re seniors, and this was our last chance.”
“We hoped to get so much further,” Brogia said. “But it was a great season. It really was.”
“Especially after losing so many seniors from last year,” Friedman added. “I don’t think anyone expected us to be this good.”
For Lynch, bidding farewell to her four seniors – Dowd, Borgia, Friedman and Anderson - may have been the hardest part.
“This group of seniors was probably the hardest working group of seniors that I have ever come across,” she said. “Their success on the court has really been related to the fact that they all have played club since ninth grade. They all have worked extremely hard in the offseason.
“That’s why they’re such a great core of the team. It speaks for itself when you watch them play together.”
#12 Pennsbury 3, #5 Strath Haven 1 (25-22, 25-23, 18-25, 25-21)
Pennsbury was unpredictable. Strath Haven was not.
That may have been the difference between winning and losing, according to coach Tim Paulson.
“We played as a team,” the Falcons’ coach said. “They have a couple of big hitters, and they have a couple of rotations where they’re predictable. We’re not as predictable, and they couldn’t key on one girl.
“Their big girl hit over the top of us a couple of times, but we also blocked her.”
The Falcons received a huge performance from Lauren Pisauro, who contributed 10 kills, four blocks and 13 digs. The Falcons’ outside hitter had no hitting errors and hit at a dazzling .465 clip for the match. Audrey Stringer added 14 kills and five blocks while Jae Jackson had eight kills and four blocks. Senior setter Julian Slaven had 33 assists and two aces.
Another key was the Falcons’ tough serving game.
“That put them into predictable situations where we knew where they were going,” Paulson said. “We also passed well, so they were faced with an unpredictable attack. We run a real fast middle they could not stop.”
If some were surprised to see the Falcons pull off he upset, Paulson was not in that number.
“I hate to say this, but I had a feeling we were going to do very well tonight,” he said. “We weren’t going to lose easily. I had a good feeling that we were ready to play, and we matched up well with them.
“In that sense, I’m not shocked, but it’s huge for these girls. Our goal is to win our last match of the year. These girls are very goal oriented and very focused, and this win is real big, real big.”
#1 Upper Merion 3, #16 Garnet Valley 0 (25-12, 25-10, 25-19)
Junior setter Cassidy Koenig had 32 assists, six kills and 12 digs while senior Devyn Ingram had 13 kills and 20 digs. Freshman Melanie Ingram had 11 kills and 12 digs while defensive libero Shannon Phillips had 16 digs. Casey Griffth had three aces and seven kills. Heather Krick and Annie Lawn each had three blocks.
#4 Avon Grove 3, #13 Hatboro-Horsham 1 (23-25, 25-12, 25-22, 25-20)
The Hatters hung tough, and according to coach Kathy Tanner, “It was a great team effort with some outstanding offensive plays by Julie Harvey, Kathryn Lucca, Kiersten Collette, Kelsey Baranek and Lauren Laucella.
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