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By: Kate Harman
A year ago, Souderton’s appearance in the Final Four of the PIAA Class 6A tournament was a surprise – unexpected, even.
The 11th and final seed out of District 1, one look at the bracket told you the team wasn’t anticipated to make it out of the first round, let alone win four in a row.
All of that, and the program had never won a state playoff game in its’ history, either.
So, unexpected, yes, the run Souderton put together last year was unprecedented.
Until, of course, this season.
This year, Souderton was the pre-season favorite to win not only the district, but make a run for the state title, returning all five starters from last year’s Cinderella run.
Underdog to favorite in the span of nine months.
On Friday, the District 1 champions lived up to the high expectations, defeating a gutsy Neshaminy team, 54-43, in the state quarterfinal at Bensalem.
“Last year we were the underdogs and we learned from that game experience,” senior guard Kate Connolly, who registered her 1000th point in the game, said. “Now, we are going to try and bring that experience to this year’s Final Four game. We will see what we can do.
“I think we learned that we need to stay calm in tight situations,” the Drexel recruit added. “It was such a close game last year – it came down to the final seconds – so I think we know we’ve done that before and we have to keep playing as hard as we can and try to come out on top this time.”
Connolly was terrific for 32 minutes, netting a game-high of 19 points and having a tendency to come up with a crucial steal, block, or rebound when her team needed her most.
When Connolly wasn’t coming up big, it was Alana Cardona or Megan Walbrandt notching key buckets for the team.
While different moments belonged to different members of Souderton (29-2) against a Neshaminy (20-9) team that hung around all contest, perhaps none was bigger than a three-pointer from Megan O’Donnell with four minutes remaining that stretched the lead from six to nine.
“It felt really good,” Connolly said, of the clutch shot. “It made everyone settled done, like, alright, we scored. It extended the lead – three more points – and it really helped get the confidence back up, so we could take a deep breath and play defense.”
On Monday, Souderton returns to the state semifinals – a contest that they were seconds away from winning in 2017 – against Upper Dublin.
“After our season last season, one of our goals, obviously, was to make it back to where we were, but this time we want to keep going,” Walbrandt said. “It is a pretty special feeling and Monday is going to be a pretty special game for us. We just have to work hard to get that win.”
A win, that, for the program would be a first, but not unexpected.
@Ka_Harman
Neshaminy 13 8 9 13 – 43
Souderton 13 14 15 12 – 54
N: Brooke Mullin 16, Kristin Curley 9. Olivia Scotti 6, Emily Tantala 5, Allison Harvey 5, Kelli Kowalick 2
S: Kate Connolly 19, Megan Walbrandt 12, Alana Cardona 10, Megan Bealer 8, Megan O’Donnell 3, Tori Dowd 2