Dallastown, Susquehannock advance to YAIAA boys' volleyball semifinals
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Size, experience and home court.
Those are three advantages any team in any sport would love to have when the post-season starts.
And that is exactly what Dallastown took into its league quarterfinal match against Red Lion in the YAIAA Boys' Volleyball Tournament Monday.
Despite a valiant effort from the younger, smaller Lions, the Wildcats put those advantages to good use in a 25-12, 24-26, 25-22, 25-20 victory over their next-door neighbors.
Susquehannock preceded that match with a 25-20, 27-25, 25-18 victory over York Suburban in the earlier quarterfinal pairing.
With wins Monday, the Warriors and the Wildcats/Lions move into this evening semifinal round, set to start at 6 p.m..
Susquehannock takes on top-seeded Northeastern, the undefeated league champions, in the Dallastown High School gymnasium while Dallastown meets Central York in the Wildcats' middle school gym.
Semifinal winners will face off in the high school gym for the title later this evening.
The Wildcats jumped out to big leads in all four games, something Dallastown coach Lance Ranck has been a point of emphasis for his team.
"We are constantly looking for strong starts," he said. "It's been pulling through on game twos that we haven't been doing. The intensity drops. Game two was tough to swallow."
In the second game he referred to started with domination by Dallastown, holding an early lead of 10-3 before Red Lion found its groove and roared back to earn game point at 24-21. Dallastown responded with kills from Chadd Jones (match-high 17 kills) and Jared Barnett before a Lion error tied it at 24.
But Lion freshman Cole Brillhart got the ball back with an off-speed shot that found the floor. Dillon Hildebrand then clinched the game for Red Lion with a roll shot down the line.
"We actually started to play that second game," said Lion coach Ashley Reinert. "We started to run some stuff in-system and then got them out of system."
The last two games saw the Wildcats height start to wear down the Lions' smaller front row. In addition to Jones' 17 kills, Barnett tallied 15 kills and Aaron Ward finished with 13.
"Halfway through the season, it was always one guy (carrying the offense). We had a long talk and we (targeted) getting at least three guys in double digits.
"Peyton did a nice job distributing the ball tonight."
In the opener, it was a critical second game win that kept Susquehannock in control of the match.
After a tie at 11 points apiece, the Trojans put the pressure on with aggressive swings from middle hitter Liam Ridings and leftside hitter Sepehr Vakili, keeping the Warriors at bay.
Susquehannock finally got a lead at 22-21 on a Brian Sheddy ace.
The Warriors maintained a one-point advantage with an exchange of kills before a dump by Susquehannock setter Stephen Rouse gave his squad game point. However, Suburban would not go away easily, tying it at 24 on a kill by Zach Weinstein and a stuff block by Jack Schultz.
Each team missed a serve before Rouse got the ball to his big hitters, AJ Schaeffer (12 kills) and Quinlan Kauffman (9 kills), on consecutive plays to close out the game, 27-25.
Warrior coach Tim Bonitz expected a tight match coming into it, even though his team owned a regular season 3-0 sweep over the Trojans.
"It's counties in York, You expect every match to go five (games)," he said. "They've really had our number recently. (In the second game), they got their middles going. We had to get better to answer (the challenge)."
The win was the first playoff win since 2003 for a Warrior program which has consistently earned a spot in the league post-season event but couldn't get over the hump.
Susquehannock def. York Suburban, 25-20, 27-25, 25-18
Susquehannock stats — AJ Schaeffer (12 kills, 12 digs, 2 aces), Brian Sheddy (10 kills, 8 digs, 1 ace), Stephen Rouse (3 kills, 32 assists, 2 digs, 1 ace), Quinlan Kauffman (2 blocks, 9 kills, 19 digs), Nick Voltaggio (2 blocks, 1 kill, 1 ace), Will Earls (2 kills), Kurt Eckenrode, 11 digs).
York Suburban stats — Liam Ridings (8 kills, 4 blocks), Matt Hogg (6 kills, 2 blocks, 2 digs), Sepehr Vakili (8 kills, 1 block, 7 digs), Jack Schultz (4 kills, 2 blocks, 2 digs), Kaleb Ansell (27 assists, 3 blocks, 6 digs, 1 ace), Zach Weinstein (6 digs), Josh Teague (12 digs), Gavin Dean (20 digs).
Dallastown def. Red Lion, 25-12, 24-26, 25-22, 25-20
Red Lion stats — Cole Brillhart (10 kills, 15 digs), Dillon Hildebrand (10 kills, 1 block, 13 digs, 1 ace), Bennett Fry (9 kills, 2 blocks, 16 digs), Caedan Sweeney (5 kills, 5 blocks, 3 digs), John Longnecker (2 kills, 32 assists, 12 digs, 1 block), Joel Zamora (9 digs).
Dallastown stats — Aaron Ward (13 kills, 8 blocks, 5 digs), Jared Barnett (15 kills, 6 blocks, 17 digs), Chadd Jones (17 kills, 10 blocks), Peyton Ranck (48 assists, 6 digs), Owen Terroso (24 digs).
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