Wednesday, May 30
By Keith Schweigert http://www.lancnews.com/sports/index.htm
New Era Sports Writer
WEST LAWN _ Hempfield's bid
for a perfect season is over.
But its quest for a state volleyball championship continues.
The Black Knights lost their first game of the season in Tuesday night's
state opener against Pennsbury at Wilson High School, where the Wildcats surged
to a 15-8 victory in the third game of their best-of-five series.
It was the first time in 112 games that an opponent got the best of
Hempfield, but the Knights answered with a 15-5 win in Game 4 to wrap up the
series 3-1.
By winning the match, Hempfield improved to 54-0 in match play this season
and locked down a spot in the state quarterfinals, which open on Friday at 9
a.m. at Shippensburg University.
The state's top-ranked team also received a much-needed wakeup call.
"I was a little upset (at losing),'" said Hempfield senior Tony
Spangler. "We really shouldn't have lost to this team. We started a little
slowly, and they took advantage of that and got us. We have to realize that
every team we face is going to be gunning for us _ and they only get better
from here on out."
Hempfield coach Mike Vogel said he was glad the pressure of maintaining a
perfect record is off his players" shoulders.
"It's probably pretty good that it happened tonight,'" he said.
"It's nice to go through the season without losing a game, but you don't
keep score that way. We won over 100 games in a row. It's good to find out how
the kids react.
"If this had happened at Shippensburg, who knows how they would have
taken it. They've gotten it out of their system. The pressure's off. And they
were able to respond right away and win the next game. I'm pleased with that."
Still, Vogel couldn't have been pleased with the way his team played in its
first loss of the year.
After taking a 2-0 lead in the series with wins in the first two games (15-8
and 15-3), Hempfield spotted Pennsbury an 8-1 lead in Game 3 and never fully
recovered.
The Knights made one surge to cut the Wildcat lead to 8-7, but Pennsbury
reeled off five straight points from there to put the game away.
"We got blown out, to be blunt about it,'" Vogel admitted.
During the three-minute rest period between games, Vogel gathered his troops
and told them they had no time to lament the loss.
"We got our heads handed to us, and we had three minutes to
recover,'" said Vogel. "I told the kids they had to respond, and they
did."
"Coach told us we couldn't lose another one, or they'd have all the
momentum going into the fifth game,'" Spangler recalled. "We didn't
want our season to wind up riding on one game, because anything could happen."
Pennsbury jumped out to a 3-1 lead in Game 4, but Hempfield answered with
four straight points to take the lead for good.
The Wildcats were able to stay two points for a while longer, but the
Knights gradually pulled Õ Õaway behind clutch kills from Spangler and Ben
Murray.
"Our big guns came up with some clutch hits when they needed to,'"
said Vogel. "And Matt Baker had some great sets to get them open."
Murray finished with 23 kills, while Spangler added 21. Stephen Mummau led
the team in aces with two, while Murray and Matt Manning had a team-high three
blocks each.
"On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give us a 7 tonight,'" said Vogel.
"We weren't sharp, but Pennsbury deserves a lot of credit for that. They
seemed to lull us to sleep at times, and they were able to take advantage of
that.
"This was the type of match I thought we were going to get. When you
get to this level, you go up against kids who are pretty darn good. And they're
playing from the heart, because they don't want to lose."
Pennsbury, which upset Council Rock in the District 1 tournament earlier
this season, saw its magical season come to an end with the loss.
But the Wildcats earned some respect before they were eliminated.
"I can see now how they beat Council Rock,'" said Vogel.
"They're actually a lot like us. They aren't very big, but they serve
aggressively and are very precise on offense. They move the ball around well,
and they have a great setter."
In the end, Hempfield might have received a valuable lesson about the danger
of overconfidence.
Spangler said he took that lesson to heart.
"I'm going to get everybody fired up on Friday,'" he said.
"We can't afford to start slow and fall behind the way we did tonight.
Teams (at Shippensburg) are going to be even better."
NOTES: Hempfield opens pool play Friday at 11 a.m. against an
opponent to be determined. The Knights" two other games Friday are
scheduled for 2 p.m. at 5 p.m.