Upper Merion sweeps North Penn in D1-4A opener
UPPER MERION >> Upper Merion won six straight points to close out the first game against North Penn and never looked back.
The Vikings swept the Knights 25-22, 25-11, 25-14 in the first round of the District 1-4A playoffs Tuesday night at Upper Merion Area Middle School.
The ninth-seeded Vikings called timeout late in the first game, trailing 21-19. The 24th-seeded Knights took the ensuing point to make it 22-19, but that’s where Upper Merion took over. The hosts scored the final six points to win the first game and went on a 50-16 run deep into the third game.
Head coach Tony Funsten on his message during the timeout: “I said, ‘We’re taking their best shot and we’ve got a shot here. We just need to settle down, get (Caitlyn Daywalt) back serving and then let’s run it out.’ That’s what we did… I didn’t say anything magic that they haven’t heard from me before.”
“It finally clicked in our heads that it’s go time,” Upper Merion sophomore Sophia Schweikert said. “We have to play as a team and work as hard as we can for each point.”
Daywalt served the final five points of the first game. Yalerio Acevedo earned the 25th point with a block for a 1-0 lead.
“I think the first set we played really well,” North Penn coach Jynell Brunt said. “That’s my normal team. One of my middles lost a contact, my libero got stabbed in the eye by her teammate and we kind of fell apart after that. Rough night.”
In the second game, the Vikings (17-5) scored in bunches and had nine aces. They started with two 3-0 runs to take a 6-1 lead. A 4-0 run and 5-0 run make it 15-4. Just like the first game, they closed the second with six straight points to take a 2-0 lead. Schweikert, Despina Kourtidis, Natalie Januzelli and Amber Chang each had two aces in the second game while Raven Albrecht had one.
“(Aces) hype us up a lot,” Schweikert, who had 13 kills, seven digs and four aces in the match, said, “especially because the student section is all there. Everyone is cheering, it’s so loud, the energy in the gym is so powerful. We all know we have to get hyped.”
Upper Merion jumped out to a 15-3 lead in the third game and a 19-5 advantage capped the 50-16 run going back to the first game. Albrecht served the final three points of the match, which resulted in two Schweikert kills and a Schweikert block to complete the sweep and send the Vikings to the round of 16 for the 28th consecutive season (excluding the COVID year in 2020).
In the second round, the Vikings will travel to No. 8 Methacton at 7 p.m. Thursday. They beat the Warriors, who had a first-round bye, in four sets in the regular season and in five sets in the Pioneer Athletic Conference semifinals last week.
“We’re really excited for it because we know we have to play as hard as we can,” Schweikert said, “especially going five sets with them in the playoffs. I think this time we’re going to come out even harder than we did the first time and we’re going to play for it all.”
Sydney Bright and Acevedo each had eight kills for Upper Merion. Albrecht had eight digs and Daywalt 29 assists.
North Penn’s season ends with the loss and a 10-11 record.
“(This match) actually looked a lot like our season,” Brunt said. “We’re very on or very off.”
Upper Merion 3, North Penn 0
North Penn 22 11 14
Upper Merion 25 25 25
