Upper Dublin tops North Penn in 4 for SOL Continental win
UPPER DUBLIN >> Coming off of a 3-17 season a year ago and now with its third coach in as many years, the rebuilding process continued for the North Penn girls volleyball team as it took on Suburban One Continental Conference opponent Upper Dublin.
The Knights played well for stretches of the match but some inconsistencies and misplays led to a 3-1 (25-23, 10-25, 23-25 and 15-25) loss Wednesday afternoon.
“I thought we kept the momentum up, there were just a couple point swings and in a rally game you can’t really come back from that in a 25 point game,” North Penn coach Brian Harvey said. “Other than that I think were doing great (and) were coming together.”
After dropping the first set, Upper Dublin got on track with a convincing 25-15 second-game win as setter Bryn Stek started to make her mark on the match.
Stek finished the second game with eight assists as she totaled over 20 for the entire match. Stek set up quality looks for her hitters starting in the second set with the main beneficiaries being Jenny McAneney and Maggie Weglos as they combined for over 30 kills.
Upper Dublin defeats North Penn 3 games to 1. 23-25, 25-10, 25-23, 25-15 pic.twitter.com/W592WSXWmE
— Tim Hindin (@timhindin) September 7, 2016
“The first set obviously showed we couldn’t get our passes up,” Upper Dublin coach Paul Choi said. “It made it very difficult to find any sort of rhythm. The second, third and fourth set we were definitely able to find our rhythm passing. We got into a little bit of trouble because they have some tough servers.”
Playing opposite of Stek was North Penn sophomore setter Alycia Powers. Powers go-to target with her passes was Allison Elechko as the senior finished with nine kills for the contest.
“Our offense, when we’re on point, we’re going to win every game, I’m not even worried about that,” Harvey said. “We struggled a little bit with passing, a couple players kind of get injured so we had to mix it up a little bit but that’s OK sometimes you just got to do that kind of stuff.”
Through three matches thus far this season, North Penn has defeated Abington and dropped a couple tough matches to quality opponents in Lower Merion and Upper Dublin. While the Knights may have lost its last two, the quality of play remains encouraging for the young and rebuilding group.
“From 3-17 last year, what’s happened in just a few weeks is to me dominating amazing,” Harvey said. “To come up from 3-17 to show a strong program, especially last night’s program who won 23 straight (conference) titles and almost taking them I think the growth period in such a short period of time is phenomenal.”
