Souderton prevails over Dock Mennonite in non-league battle

FRANCONIA >> They picked up balls they don’t normally pick up, scrapped for every point they could, and ultimately prevailed in what their coach, Luke Pinto, called a “grind-it-out” affair, typical for the Souderton-Dock Mennonite rivalry.

“It’s always exciting to have close matches. We live for this kind of stuff,” said Big Red senior setter Luke Pagan. “When we get the opportunity to play in crunch time, we love it.”

Big Red rallied back from a 21-15 deficit to take Game One 27-25, and after falling in Game Two, 25-23, the Indians took Games Three and Four by the counts of 25-17 and 25-23 to earn a 3-1 victory over the Pioneers in a non-league battle on Friday.

“We had been stressing the aspect of being a team and having that energy,” Pinto said. “And it started to click tonight, where we played as a team, played as a unit, where it wasn’t one piece moving without the rest. It was a well-oiled machine.”

Aidan Wunderly racked up 17 kills, Jimmy Wert had 15, and Pagan set things up all evening.

“It’s awesome to have a senior leader as your setter, a leader who keeps the team motivated, keeps the team accountable,” Pinto said.

“I try to spread the ball around, see who has the hot hand and feed him,” Pagan explained. “This feels amazing. We’ve always had a little bit of a rivalry with Dock. We know the guys on the team and it’s always fun competing with people you know.”

Souderton’s determination surfaced in the first set, when the Indians rallied back multiple times before closing out 27-25.

“I was fired up in the first one — back and forth, on the edge of the seat,” Pinto said. “It was good to be on top of the first one. That really kept our morale high.”

Souderton climbed to 4-3 overall and remains 2-2 in the Suburban One League American Conference.

Dock, which fell for the first time this spring, is now 4-1 overall and is 3-0 in the Independent League.

The Pioneers were led by Sam Gingrich (nine kills), Connor Derstine (18 digs) and Eli Vasey (17 assists).

“Every set was a few points here and there,” Pioneers coach Trish Hoover said. “That’s how we usually play Souderton. Our guys battle. Defense is typically the name of our game.

“But we didn’t pass or serve well enough to do what we normally do.”