Pennsbury three-peats in SOL National with win at William Tennent (VIDEO)
WARMINSTER – While they went in knowing they had to beat the only team that beat them earlier in the season in order to claim a league title all to themselves, the Lady Falcons were determined not to lose.
So much so that visiting Pennsbury refused to falter in a single game to William Tennent, not even in game two when they trailed midway through by six points.
After winning game one, 25-16, the Falcons came back in game two and won that one, 25-21, with the winning point coming on a tip over the net by senior captain Kate Foley.
Then, they finished the Panthers off with a 25-18 triumph, exacting revenge for a 3-1 loss that Tennent pasted on Pennsbury in the first matchup between the schools.
With the win, the Falcons claim their third straight Suburban One League (SOL) National Conference crown. Had Pennsbury lost the match, they would have had to share the league title with Council Rock North.
“We played together as a team and we played together as a unit, to be able to show that we wanted to win this so bad,” said senior Ali Zinnen, who chipped in with six kills. “We wanted to win the title outright.
“We did not want to share it with North.”
For the Falcons, sophomore Julia Vreeswyk and senior Elle Patterson led the Orange and Black with 12 and 10 kills, respectively. Seniors Dagny Gould and Kate Foley chipped in with 14 digs apiece. Gould came through with four service aces in the contest.
“It was a team effort,” insisted Foley. “Our defense is what won it for us. We were not letting anything hit the floor. We were keeping balls in play.”
The last time the sides squared off, the Panthers split the first two games with Pennsbury before taking the last two 25-19 and 26-24.
“Tennent is a great defensive team so no matter how hard you swing, they’re always going to dig it up” said Foley. “We just had to be smart. We pretty much had to wear them out instead of them wearing us out.”
Officiating in the contest – though not a factor in the outcome – was abysmal. Balls hitting the floor were overlooked and some others that were out of bounds were ruled in. At one point in game two, a point scored by the Falcons on a kill by Patterson was ruled in the Panthers’ favor.
“It was devastating at first,” explained Foley. “But then we had to move on and take that energy and turn it into something positive.
“If we were going to win the game, we had to forget about it.”
Tennent extended the 10-6 lead given to them to 16-10 before Pennsbury mounted a successful comeback bid.
Two straight points tallied by Vreeswyk and a Panthers’ hitting error cut the deficit to three. A pair of points registered by Foley including an ace, sandwiched around on tallied by Vreeswyk deadlocked the score at 16-apiece.
The sides were still tied at 19, each, when the Falcons pulled away. It was Foley who both began and finished off a 6-2 Pennsbury run that put game two in the Falcons’ favor while a pair of hitting errors by Tennent, a point from Vreeswyk and another from Patterson helped the visitors to a 25-21 triumph in game two.
While the Panthers took a quick 3-0 edge in game three, Pennsbury rebounded with a 7-1 run capped by one of four aces registered by Gould that put the Falcons on top, 7-4. The next run by Pennsbury was capped by an ace recorded by senior Sydney French and put the three-time league champs on top, 15-8.
Tennent responded with a run of its own, posting seven points for themselves to the Falcons’ three, a run that was capped by a kill by junior Laura Cochrane that drew the Panthers back at 18-15.
Pennsbury finished the game, the set and the match off with a 7-3 run of its own, a string that was capped by a block by junior Jess Leventry. An ace by Gould and a Zinnen kill highlighted the Falcons final push in the match.
Pennsbury 3, William Tennent 0
(Oct. 20 at WTHS)
PENNSBURY 25 25 25
TENNENT 16 21 18
