Central Bucks sweeps Souderton for 4th straight win

FRANCONIA >> The Central Bucks West girls volleyball team is keeping things fun on the court and keeping the wins coming as it heads into the District 1-4A playoffs on an upswing.

“Just making each other laugh and encouraging each other even after the tough points that are just really rough to lose,” Bucks senior libero Caroline Taylor. “But it’s just coming together as a family – we’re all super-close and we love playing with each other.”

CB West rolled to victories in the first two sets against Souderton in the Suburban One League Continental Conference match Thursday night before the host Indians kept things tight in the third. The Bucks, however, erased a 13-11 deficit by winning seven of the next nine points and held on from there to claim a 3-0 (25-16, 25-13, 25-20) victory.

“I think something that really worked for us tonight was just coming in here and having fun,” Taylor said. “We play the best when we have the most fun. And we just have more energy that way and that’s what really makes us come together and trust each other more.”

Rachel Hu finished with 17 digs and 12 digs, Alex Barklage collected 12 kills and a block while Taylor had 16 digs and an assist for West (14-4, 9-3), which capped its regular season with a fourth win in a row.

“I just think that the more we play together and the more we have fun, the better we do,” the Bucks’ Rachel Hu said. “It’s never helpful if we’re down on each other, it’s not fun for us, it’s not good for the play.”

Erin Ferello totaled 16 assists, nine digs and a pair of aces for  CB West while Elisa Kremser had 15 assists and two digs. Alexa Lee added nine digs and five aces, Amber Woodring had nine digs an ace with Hollis Walton posting six kills, two digs a block and an assist.

After going 6-15 in 2021, Central Bucks West began this year 9-1 before back-to-back defeats to Souderton and North Penn. But the Bucks have lost one match since – to Central Bucks South in five sets Oct. 11 – as they place second in the Continental behind champ Central Bucks East and are set to play in districts for the first time since 2019.

“We’re really excited obviously,” Hu said. This is the first time we’ve made it this far, at least our (group) – I’m a junior, (Taylor) is a senior – so we’re really excited we knew that if we won this game we’d be playing at home, so we are going be back at our school on Tuesday for the first round of playoffs.”

West entered Thursday’s match 13^th in the District 1-4A rankings and with the win bumped up a spot to 12^th.

Souderton (12-8, 6-6), meanwhile, was looking to bounce back from five-set losses to Gwynedd Mercy and CB South earlier in the week but the Indians quickly found themselves in a 15-6 hole in the first set.

Big Red hung around early in the second before a five-point run put West up 14-8 and the Bucks pulled away to hold a 2-0 lead in the match.

Souderton started to find better play in the third but could not prevent the sweep and were dealt a third straight defeat.

“Two days ago we had a big loss against Central Bucks South, which was so unexpected so we set two goals for ourselves – to be positive and communicate a lot and then we came out failing to do those,” Indians senior libero Alexa Mazzeo said. “By the third set we were not ready to let this be our last game and go out that way so we really started being positive, we said ‘Fake it ‘til you make it.’ And that’s when we started kicking it up.

“But that’s what was lacking in the first two sets, we all were just very upset but by the third set we were ready to rumble but it was too late still.”

Prior to the match, the Indians were just inside the 24-team district field sitting 23^rd in the rankings. After the loss, Souderton still had its playoff hopes alive as it remained at 23^rd. The first round of the District 1-4A tournament begins Tuesday.

“It’s so unexpected so I think that’s why everyone didn’t know how to act because we were doing so strong this season and we don’t know why we’re hitting the brakes,” Mazzeo said. “I don’t know, we don’t know why we’re hitting the brakes but if we do make it into playoffs, we need to really work it out and hit a clean slate.”

Teya McConnaha had six kills, three blocks and two digs for the Indians while Mazzeo recorded 14 digs and two assists. McKenna Murawski finished with four kills and eight digs with Grace Boyd chipping in six assists, a dig and an ace.

Down 10-8 in the third set, Souderton took three straight points for an 11-10 lead. After West tied it at 11 the Indians responded by winning the next two to go up 13-11.

West claimed the next three to retake the lead 14-13. Souderton pulled level at 14 but the Bucks went ahead for good with back-to-back points. The Indians cut the margin to one at 16-15 before West pushed it to 18-15 and forced Souderton to call a timeout.

“To be honest we did have to refocus a couple of times after those runs,” Hu said. “But once we got it together and just reminded ourselves to bring it, do things more smart, it helped us.”

The Bucks went up 20-16 before Souderton pulled to within 20-18 but that was as close as the Indians could get. A 4-1 spurt had West’s lead at 24-19 and after Souderton denied one match point, the Bucks secured the 3-0 win on its second try.

In the opening set, four straight points had CB West up 11-5 and made Souderton use a timeout. The Indians took the following point but the Bucks proceeded to collect the four after that for a 15-6 advantage.

West had its first double-digit lead at 22-12 and grabbed a 1-0 match lead with a 25-16 win.

“They were hitting down the line and our defense wasn’t covering it,” Mazzeo said. “I think our serve-receive was a little off then I think when we did get ones up we doubled it or we hit it to them, we weren’t hitting it down.”

The Indians closed to within 9-8 in the second set before the Bucks answered with a 5-0 burst to go up 14-8. Souderton took the next two points to make it 14-10 but West pulled away with an 8-2 run, building a 22-12 lead as it went on to earn a 25-13 victory.

“We always think that the second set is probably the most important set of the game cause it really determines the tone of the game,” Taylor said. “And I think that’s exactly what we did, we kept it strong.”