Pennridge swinging into form as regular season winds down

There was a lot of uncertainty coming into this boys volleyball season, but the picture is starting to crystallize for Pennridge.

“I think we have (gotten better as the season has gone on.) And I’m excited about that,” Rams coach Dave Childs said. “We need to. We’re not where we wanna be but I think we’re on the right track.”

The Rams had a tremendous week, earning a 3-0 win over rival Souderton Thursday night followed by a 3-0 victory over Pennsbury on Friday evening.

The Rams have upped their record to 10-2 and are playing with a tremendous amount of confidence and unity.

The pandemic wiped out the 2020 season and made this spring very much a mystery, due to lack of playing time coming in and a largely untested, unproven roster.

But the Rams are coming together, and moving upwards in the stacked Suburban One League American Conference.

“Anyone can beat anyone. We’re all kind of in this post-COVID situation,” Childs said. “It’s gonna be the teams that improve the most by the end.

“It’s not where we’re at right now or where we were two weeks ago. This year more than ever, whoever is hot at the end has a real shot.”

Resilient Rams >> Pennridge fell behind 11-3 in Game Two against Souderton but worked its way back.

The Rams knew there might be tough sledding at times against Big Red.

“They’re gonna do that. They’re a good team with good players and good coaches. And we knew we had to be ready and had to play one of our better matches tonight to beat them,” Childs said.

“We’ve done that a couple times this year where we’re down, big points like that and stayed the course. We don’t get too high or too low, or at least try not to.

And it worked out there for us tonight.”

Said Bryce Muller: “We’re not afraid to get down, because we know we can come back.”

Pennridge came back to win Game Two and then held off a late surge by Souderton in Game Three.

“We came in knowing it was a big match and we came out strong,” Muller said. “There was no stop at all. We didn’t let any eight-point deficits get us down.”

The two teams were battling for second in the conference, behind only unbeaten Upper Dublin. Pennridge was able to win its second of the year over Souderton.

“These are probably my favorite games of the season,” the Rams’ Dan Detweiler said. “We’re usually friends with Souderton and know people there so it’s a fun game. And for every match to be so close, it was a lot of fun.”

Going Places >> The Rams won’t be satisfied with just having a good run during the regular season.

The postseason is the ultimate focus down the road.

“Everyone’s improving,” Muller said. “I don’t think there’s one person that’s not improving.”

“I think we can definitely go far,” Detweiler shared. “I think at times, we slow down a little bit but we can definitely come together as a team and have really strong moments.”

Getting There >> Big Red had a close, five-set loss to Upper Dublin this week and battled in three closely-contested games against the rival Rams.

Souderton still sports a solid 7-4 mark in the conference. Aidan Wunderly, Grant Anderson and Andrew Brown have been doing good things for Big Red.

“It’s just about using what I see them do in practice, what they’re capable of, and using that in a game,” Indians coach Luke Pinto said. “That’s from having a first-year setter, players who have never played high school volleyball before, getting reps, so it’s just an inexperience thing.

“I feel super comfortable with where we are. I hate losing but you can’t knock the talent on these guys, and once we figure it out. I’m very proud of our fight. It’ll come.”