Lansdale Catholic looks good in non-league win over CB South
LANSDALE >> There is a variety of reasons both from an offensive and defensive perspective why the Lansdale Catholic girls volleyball team defeated Central Bucks South 3-1 (25-20, 25-20, 15-25, 25-10) in Thursday’s non-league match up. The bottom line is the Crusaders made plays.
“We were able to make plays,” LC coach Katrina Pisch-Koffel said. “Our serve-receive and our serving game was really strong which I think definitely helped.”
Libero Cait Maskornick led LC defensively, finishing with a team-high 18 digs. Although Maskornick led the team, she was not the only one digging the ball for the Crusaders as they consistently as a team made some terrific defensive plays.
After failing to establish an offensive rhythm in the third game that saw it get beat 25-15, LC closed the match out with an impressive 25-10 win in the fourth game.
As a team, the Crusaders had six aces in the final game. LC served the ball consistently throughout the match, finishing with 18 aces on the afternoon.
Offensively LC got setter Dana Senour good looks as she distributed the ball to the skilled Crusader hitters. Senour tallied 33 assists for the match, providing a great catalyst for the offense.
“Our hitters did a nice job today of putting the ball away when our setter would get the perfect ball,” Pisch-Koffel said. “Dana did a really nice job today in mixing it up and getting a lot of hitters some really good looks.”
Making Senour’s job a little bit easier was hitter Ego Onu, who racked up a match-high 19 kills. Onu, an excellent power hitter, showed a variety of shots along with the other hitters for LC. Onu and the rest of the LC hitters displayed several crafty shots at the net.
“The one thing we’ve really been working on is different ways to score,” Pisch-Koffel said. “Sometimes we’re going to play teams that have really big blocks and have really good defenders. We can’t just swing, swing, swing all the time. It’s swinging, swinging, swinging and then throwing a tip in and roll in so it keep the defenders on their toes so they’re not just dug in and ready for the hard hit which is what we’ve been working on in practice and did a really nice job of it tonight.”
League play starts next Tuesday for the Crusaders. The first match — a showdown with Archbishop Wood, the team that knocked LC out of the Philadelphia Catholic League playoffs in the semifinals a year ago. The Crusaders will get a tough test from a quality opponent right out of the gate to see if they are a contending-caliber team at this point in the early season.
“Its going to be a really big test for us and a really big game of proving to them that we have gotten better and taken a step forward and that we’re ready to contend for the PCL this year,” Pisch-Koffel said.
Top Photo: Lansdale Catholic’s Caroline Noti lofts the ball over Central Bucks South’s Sydney Hauser during their match on Thursday, Sept. 8, 2016. (Bob Raines/Digital First Media)
