Council Rock North handed Pennsbury its first loss of the season in SOL National Conference action Tuesday.
COUNCIL ROCK NORTH 3, PENNSBURY 1 (25-23, 20-25, 25-17, 25-19)
There are no undefeated teams in the SOL. The Indians saw to that, handing the visiting Falcons their first loss of the season.
“It was nice for it to all come together,” North coach Mike Adams said. “We played well, and they definitely did not play up to their potential.”
The difference in the match, according to Adams, was the Indians’ defense.
“We knew they had a lot more big hitters than us, and if we didn’t keep them out of system, it’s a tough team to stop,” the Indians’ coach said. “On top of that, just things we knew we needed to do to compete and beat a team like that. Defense was important.
“Lots of players played great defense. We’re not a huge team by any means, and I’ve got a whole bunch of very good, very skilled players. We knew we were going to move players around defensively and make sure they’re where their hitters like to hit. It forced them into some frustrations. They were trying to go for more and more where they’re used to those hits constantly landing. It took them out of their game somewhat.”
The Falcons finished the night with a team hitting percent below .100.
“And we don’t have a big block,” Adams said. “It wasn’t like we were blocking them, by any means.
“It was all about working a ton on a lot of different things, changing where they stand defensively. The girls like to stand too deep and going over some basic stuff about how much more court you can cover literally being one step in. Even though the ball gets to you faster, you’re cutting off three feet of court on both sides of you. Just a lot of little things, and they realized they could handle it. They’re really athletic, they’re really quick, and they could still dig the ball.”
Maddy Moore led the Indians’ defense with 13 digs, and she also led the way at the net with 13 kills to go along with three aces. Ashley Kelly contributed nine digs, Grace Schweizer had eight digs to go along with five aces, and Jill Schweizer added six digs.
On attack, Alyssa Coates (10 kills, two aces, two digs) and Mackenzie Tinner (seven kills, two aces, one block, one dig) came up big. Senior captain Sarah Caola had 28 assists, four kills, five aces, five digs and one block. Kaelin Mealy and Jenna Hron each added two kills and one block.
Several weeks into the season, Adams made some changes that are paying dividends.
“We can serve receive better than we did earlier in the season, things we’ve been working on since our first scrimmage but I wasn’t comfortable doing in a match,” the Indians’ coach said. “Finally, we just started doing it the weekend when we had the two non-conference matches against Mount St. Joe’s and Downingtown East. It started to work in the first match against Mount St. Joe’s, and it finally started to click against Downingtown East. It’s definitely made a big difference.
“Tonight was probably the first time we had a full team with nobody hurt and nobody out, so that was nice too.”
For the Falcons, Julia Vreeswyk led the way with 15 kills, eight digs and one ace. Sydney Buell had seven kills and eight digs, and Brooke Burns also had seven kills. Elley Torres added four kills, eight digs and one ace, and Ashley Parry had seven digs and two aces. Heather Linker contributed four aces while Kiley Bucknum had 30 assists and three digs.
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