North Penn & Neshaminy advanced to Thursday night’s District 1 3A Tournament title game. Neshaminy/CB South photos provided courtesy of Jon Sklut. Check back for a gallery of photos. CLICK HERE to go directly to Suburban One Sports' BOYS' VOLLEYBALL GALLERIES.
District 1 3A semifinals
It’s been an interesting District 1 3A Tournament this spring with the top four seeds eliminated before the district semifinals. As a result, the nine seed (North Penn) and six seed (Neshaminy) have already punched their tickets to the state tournament, and they will be playing each other for a district title on Thursday at Central Bucks South High School.
Spring-Ford and Central Bucks South will be playing in Thursday’s third place game with the winner earning the final state berth. It promises to be an interesting night of volleyball. Stay tuned.
#9 NORTH PENN 3, #5 SPRING-FORD 1 (25-22, 24-26, 25-21, 25-20)
The Knights upped their game as the season progressed, and they are playing their best volleyball in the postseason. After a 4-3 start, the Knights have been 13-3 in their last 16 games and have won five straight heading into Thursday’s district final.
“We had a rocky start to the season,” said NP coach Zheng Huang, who is in his third year as the team’s head coach. “We had a couple of losses to strong teams.
“We just figured it out as we go, and now we finally have solidified a strong lineup. Everyone is settling into their roles. When the (tournament) bracket first came out, we were like – ‘We’re okay.’”
The Knights were actually better than okay.
After a 3-2 win over Pennsbury, the tournament’s eight seed, in the opening round, they found themselves staring at a match against top-seeded Wissahickon, which had handed the Knights a pair of regular season losses.
“The team had a lot of confidence that we could beat any team,” Huang said.
North Penn avenged its losses to Wissahickon with a 3-1 win over the Trojans.
The team has four senior starters – Kyle Park and Prithvi Patel have both been with the program for four years, Quinn Clarkson has been with Huang for three years, and Logan Krider has only played volleyball for two years.
“This has been a team effort because everybody’s settled in their place,” Huang said. “When we’re in a timeout, everybody talks. They have their own thoughts, and then they listen and execute.”
Last year, the Knights finished second in the SOL American Conference and advanced to the second round of districts. This year, they finished tied for third in the conference and earned a spot in the district title game.
For the Knights, it is their program’s first trip to the District 1 3A title game since 2019 when they fell to Central Bucks East.
“This is very exciting for the program and for me as well as a head coach,” Huang said. “Last year I knew my team was competitive, but I know the playoffs have a lot of uncertainty, so I usually set my goal as – I want us to make the postseason, and how far we can go depends on the team. It depends on our mindset and what the team wants because that’s the thing you have to fight for.”
In Tuesday’s semifinal win, the Knights split the first two sets, losing a grueling second set, 24-26, but rebounding to win the next two.
By the numbers: North Penn: Libero Prithvi Patel led the defense (20 digs, 5 assists, 1 ace), Setters Sam Kim (25 assists, 1 kill, 9 digs) and Liam Jeffers (13 assists, 1 kill, 7 digs) ran the offense. Leading the Knights at the net were Daniel Arskiy (12 kills, 2 blocks) and Quinn Clarkson (11 kills, 3 blocks, 3 assists, 3 digs), Middles Logan Krider (8 kills, 1 block) and Aaron DeSantis (4 kills, 4 blocks) dominated at the net. Also contributing were Kyle Park (8 kills), Max Webb (4 kills, 1 ace) and Luca Dalla Costa: (1 block).
Up next: North Penn will face #6 Neshaminy at Central Bucks South in the title game Thursday (7pm).
#6 NESHAMINY 3, #7 CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 0
(Neshaminy info will be added when it’s received)
The sixth seeded Redskins earned a sweep of the visiting Titans to earn a spot in Thursday’s District 1 3A semifinal.
By the numbers: Central Bucks South: Jake Wullert (10 kills), Max Zagnojny (7 kills), Ionnis Chios (5 kills), Will Forsythe (9 digs), Michael Wang (20 digs), Javi Robayo (27 assists)
Up next: Neshaminy will face #9 North Penn at Central Bucks South in the title game Thursday (7pm), and Central Bucks South will do battle with Spring-Ford for third place and the final state berth Thursday (5pm).
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