WARRINGTON — Pink ribbons, pink T-shirts and pink facial paint, for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, adorned the doorways and many students’ cheeks inside Central Bucks South’s expansive gymnasium, its cavalcade of color and sound making an already sizeable crowd seem doubly as large.
Into this energetic burst of light rode the Pennridge High School girls volleyball team, boasting a 9-3 record and District 1 playoff ambitions ahead of this Suburban One League Continental Conference rematch with its neighbors down the road.
Pennridge won the first meeting 3-1 a month ago, and through the first two sets Tuesday night, it appeared they would breeze in and out of CB South almost in time to catch the Phillies’ first pitch.
But after cruising out to a 2-0 lead, Pennridge found itself in a dogfight, requiring five sets to finally knock off the Titans 3-2 (25-18, 25-10, 14-25, 24-26, 15-10).
“It was just about communication and all of us working together as a team,” said Pennridge junior Caitlyn Kuntz, a middle hitter who delivered several key kills throughout the match. “We never give up.”
Seniors Darby Nichols, Brooke Alexander and Nikki Rindone were among the other standouts for the Rams (10-3, 7-1), who have been on a hot streak. They rebounded from an 0-2 start to the season by winning 10 of their last 11 matches.
Similarly resilient were the Titans, who, in the fourth set Tuesday, erased a 21-16 deficit and fended off four match points before securing a 26-24 victory to even the contest.
“They were running away with it, but we knew we had it in us to make a comeback, so we put it out of our heads and decided to make a fresh start,” said CB South’s Allison Schiesser, an outside hitter who finished with 15 kills, two blocks and a dig. “We didn’t pull it out in the end, but we tried our best as a team.
“We got beat pretty badly by them the first time around and we didn’t want that to happen again, so we really pushed ourselves during practice, and we made sure we were never going to be at that low point again this season,” added Schiesser, a senior leader on this young squad. “We had a lot of fans with us, so that was definitely really helpful. We fed off their energy the entire time.”
A contingent of students from CB South chanted after nearly every point gained by the Titans. Members of Pennridge’s junior varsity team — also decked out in pink, like their CB South counterparts and both varsity squads — often chanted back from the other end of the stands.
“They kind of had a home-court advantage, with the wild bunch over there,” joked first-year Pennridge coach Michael Fleischacker, who previously coached in the New Hope-Solebury district. “We just tried to keep an even keel and keep doing our thing, and it paid off in the long run.
“It comes to the huddles, in between sets and during timeouts, and just coming in with a nice, calm demeanor, and not just me but the players themselves,” Fleischacker said. “Our girls did a good job of talking to each other and trusting each other to go out there and execute.”
For CB South (5-10, 3-6), this is the fifth time this year the Titans have lost a match in the fifth set.
Madison Zagnojny finished with 15 kills, 12 digs, a block and an ace in the defeat. Pola Sawicka racked up 19 assists, 14 digs, two kills and an ace. Carly Scott finished with 16 assists and two digs, and Julia Lucci had 10 digs and an ace.
The Titans have been dealing with some key injuries, including to Jillian Jeffreys, a 6-foot outside hitter, who suffered a dislocated shoulder the last time these teams played each other.
“The girls are coming together,” CB South coach Kurt Godfrey said. “We had to move some people around, but it’s an unbelievably gritty and determined team, and I love the girls for fighting. The way they’re able to fight back, even when they’re down, is kind of a testament to our season.
“It’s incredibly frustrating to lose any match, but we’re right there,” Godfrey said. “We just have to keep pushing through to get over that hump.”
