Murawski helps Souderton rally in 5th set, edge North Penn in SOL Continental opener

FRANCONIA >> With the Souderton girls volleyball team trailing by two in the fifth set, McKenna Murawski knew precision was needed at the service line.

“I jump serve and sometimes it can be a little too powerful,” she said. “But I just had to pipe it down a little bit and get those serves in. Serving it in is really the good key to keep’em out of system.”

Down 10-8 to visiting North Penn in the deciding game, Murawski and the Indians proceeded to rip off five straight points – the junior’s ace down the left side putting Souderton ahead 13-10.

“She kind of just had the green light,” said Indians coach Cori Watson of Murawski. “I was just trying to get her to serve tough, serve in – that’s our motto ‘serve tough, serve in.’”

The Knights pulled back to within 13-11 after a Big Red shot went long but Souderton took the next two points to earn a 3-2 (21-25, 25-18, 25-20, 18-25, 15-11) victory in the Suburban One League Continental Conference opener for both sides Tuesday night.

“Right before the fifth set I really said ‘We need to dig deep, we need to work hard, we need to shed blood, sweat, tears, bones, everything to win this,’” Murawski said. “Because everyone wants to win against North Penn.”

Murawski  had eight aces – including three straight in a four-point service run to clinch the third set – along with 14 kills and 15 digs for the Indians (2-0, 1-0 conference), who picked up their first victory over North Penn since 2020 after getting swept by the Knights last year.

“It meant a lot to our seniors,” Murawski said. “We’ve never really won against North Penn, it’s been a long time since we won against them and being home for the seniors that are last time playing North Penn here was a lot. Beating North Penn, they’re our rivals, it’s a lot for everyone.”

Teya McConnaha had 13 kills, three aces and two digs for Souderton while Alexa Mazzeo collected 19 digs, six assists, a kill and an ace. Grace Boyd added 18 assists, four aces and a dig.

“We kind of refocused on keeping more serves in,” Watson said. “We were doing a good job of serving really aggressively but we were just missing a few too many. So we had a conversation about just being a little bit more consistent with the serve and then also putting a little bit more pressure on the hitters to find really smart spots and earn a whole lot of kills.

“North Penn is a strong hitting team and I think we did a really good job of keeping balls off the floor and I think where we went wrong is just not returning the favor. So it was good when we got to turn it around in the fifth and kind of earn a few more points off of the attack.”

North Penn (2-2, 0-1) held off Souderton in the first set but the Indians rebounded by cruising in the second then pulling away late in the third to grab a 2-1 advantage.

The Knights, however, never trailed in the fourth, jumping out to a 8-2 lead  then pushing the margin to as high as nine (22-13) to force a fifth set with a 25-18 victory.

“That’s always our goal, start strong, take an early lead and then keep it,” North Penn coach Jynell Brunt said. “ And we did that in the fourth but just didn’t work out in the fifth.”

Tuesday night was the third consecutive match North Penn played to five sets, having topped Conestoga last Tuesday before falling to West Chester Henderson two days later. Against Souderton in the deciding game, the Knights broke a 7-7 tie with back-to-back points to force a Big Red time out.

A Jalynn Grant block put NP up 10-7 but Souderton answered with its 6-0 run, the last five on Murawski’s serve with her ace making it 13-10 Indians.

The Knights got within 13-11 but Souderton earned the next two points, sealing their win when North Penn could not return a Mazzeo serve – the ball dropping to the floor after the initial dig.

“Disappointment,” Brunt said. “We made too many errors that we don’t normally make and we seem to always struggle playing in this gym for some reason. So we’ll take them at home.”

The Knights, who shared the SOL Continental last season with Central Bucks East and Central Bucks South, are home against Central Bucks West 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Souderton hosts CB East 6 p.m. Thursday then visits Boyertown for a nonleague match 3:30 p.m. Friday.

“We returned almost all of the starters and we’ve still got a lot of youth on the team,” Watson said. “So really exciting from my perspective to have a team like that.”

In the opening set, North Penn never trailed after a 7-0 run put it ahead 10-5. The Knights pushed their advantage to as large as seven at 16-9 before Souderton worked its way back. Big Red pulled to within a point three times, the final time at 21-20. North Penn, however, responded by claiming the next two points and four of the last five to secure a 25-21 win.

The Knights led 7-6 in the second set before the Indians seized control with a 9-0 run to go up 15-7. North Penn could only get as close as six while Souderton stretched its lead to as big as 10 (22-12) as it evened the match at a set apiece with a 25-18 victory.

A six-point burst gave the Indians a 14-11 lead in the third set but the Knights came back to knot things at 19-19 then again at 20-all. A Murawski kill to the backcourt put Souderton up 21-20. Murawski’s three consecutive aces made it 24-20. A NP hit that went long gave the Indians a 25-20 win.

“Again, I would probably say keeping the serves in and I think we were hitting pretty smart spots at that time,” Watson said. “The defense did a good job of keeping balls off the floor consistently but I think the difference is in the ones we won versus when we lost were the hitters putting balls to the floor.”

North Penn raced out to a 6-1 lead in the fourth set after back-to-back Emma Thornton aces. Souderton cut the margin to four, the last time at 17-13 before the Knights took the next five points to go up 22-13 en route to a 25-18 victory to tie the match 2-2.