Upper Dublin beats Neshaminy in 4 games, advances to District 1-3A final

UPPER DUBLIN >> The best season in Upper Dublin boys volleyball history continues.

The No. 2 seeded Cardinals punched their ticket to the District 1-3A championship game and earned a spot in the state playoffs with a 3-1 win, 25-18, 25-19, 20-25, 25-17,   over No. 3 Neshaminy in the district semifinals Tuesday night at Upper Dublin High School.

“Throughout the whole season we’ve been pretty good,” Upper Dublin coach Paul Choi said. “We’ve had ups and downs, but they came to show up today. This was literally the best I’ve seen everyone play together as a team.”

The Suburban One League American Conference champions got off to a fast start. David Levin scored Upper Dublin’s first five points and helped his team jump out to an early 5-1 lead.

“I was so excited to come out here and play,” Levin, who finished the match with 11 kills, three aces, two blocks and 17 digs, said. “See the other (SOL) Conference. The team came out so strong.”

“We were so looking forward to the game today,” Upper Dublin’s Trevor Molloy said. “After practice we were all getting hyped – wanted to get a big Game 1 win. It worked out for us today. It was a team effort.”

The Cardinals maintained a comfortable advantage throughout the first game. They never led by less than four points and the 25-18 final was their largest lead of the game.

“I don’t need to motivate these guys,” Choi said of the fast start. “They come out and play. They’re hungry to win. They want to keep making history for our program. That was awesome.”

The second game started with Upper Dublin and Neshaminy trading points. They split the first 10 points before the Cardinals won three straight to go ahead, 7-5. Slowly but surely the lead increased to eight, 22-14, behind Molloy’s nine kills in Game 2. After Neshaminy got within 22-18, Upper Dublin won three of the final four points to take a 2-0 lead, 25-19.

“The two-game lead was the deciding factor in this game,” Levin said. “Coming out strong, good coaching, good playing – everybody.”

Neshaminy took control early in the third game. After trailing 7-5, the visitors won 10 of the next 12 points to build a 15-9 lead. Upper Dublin got back within three three times – 17-14, 18-15 and 21-18 – but that’s as close as they’d get. Neshaminy extended the match with a 25-20 win.

Upper Dublin responded by winning the first three points of the fourth game and led all the way through to a 25-17 win to close out the win, 3-1.

Molloy finished with 17 kills and 12 digs. Neshaminy had no answer for Molloy and Levin’s big swings on the outside.

“Trevor is an amazing co-captain and he puts the ball away at the highest consistency on the team,” Levin said. “I can always count on that guy to get a kill.”

Upper Dublin’s Spencer Beidner finished with 43 assists, 20 digs, two aces and three kills. Sean Bainbridge added 21 digs and Colin Dowdell had five kills and six blocks.

The Cardinals will host No. 4 Pennridge in the District 1-3A championship game Thursday. The SOL American rivals split their regular season meetings – both matches going five sets.

“It’s always fun going up against Pennridge,” Choi said. “They’re well-coached. They have a great history of winning. We’ll be excited for that match for sure.”

Upper Dublin 3, Neshaminy 1

Neshaminy 18 19 25 17

Upper Dublin 25 25 20 25