Lancaster Mennonite's Jessica Zook goes up to block James Buchanan's Toryn Quivers during Monday night's pool play action at Hempfield High School. Zook led the Blazers into the quarterfinals with 16 blocks in Monday night's three matches, while Quivers had a team-high eight kills and three blocks.
Lancaster Mennonite's Erica Engle goes up for a block against James Buchanan.
Very few athletes look forward to practice.
Just ask Allen Iverson.
Lancaster Mennonite's girls' volleyball team? They will be practicing today and they're pretty happy about it.
That's because if they are at practice, their season isn't over.
Players and teams will grasp at anything when the conclusion of a season, a season that started with so many expectations, is a distinct possibility.
The Blazers faced that prospect Monday night in District Three Class AA pool play at Hempfield.
Playing in its third and final match of the night, Lancaster Mennonite needed a victory over Schuylkill Valley to advance to Wednesday's quarterfinal round. The Blazers won the first game of the best-of-three match, barely — 28-26 — then watched as a 21-16 lead fizzled on the strength of a late 9-3 rally by the Panthers, losing the second game.
So, not only was it down to one match but down to one game. Win, or no need for practice today.
"We said, this cannot be our last game," said Blazers' sophomore middle Jessica Rheinheimer. "We have to have practice (today)."
The Blazers are, in fact, setting, passing and hitting in practice this afternoon, thanks to a 25-13 statement third game to win the match against the Panthers. They move on to the Class AA quarterfinals where they will meet a formidable foe, Brandywine Heights, the Berks League champion, at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Lower Dauphin High School. The Blazers and Bullets met in the quarters last season with LM winning 3-2.
Lancaster Mennonite (15-3) opened pool play with a 3-0 sweep of James Buchanan. In their second match, the Blazers were overcome by Delone Catholic's defense and the Squirettes (11-4) took the first two games of the best-of-three match, thereby winning it. Delone swept all three opponents in the pool, emerging as the top seed. The Squirettes will play West York at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Northern York.
At the conclusion of the pool's second matches, Lancaster Mennonite and Schuylkill Valley were tied with one win and one loss apiece. So, the winner of their match would take the second seed.
The first game was a see-saw affair. Mennonite scored three straight points to take a 24-23 lead but couldn't put the game away. The Panthers led 25-24 but the Blazers tied it on Jessica Zook's block. Mel Modrick gave Schuylkill Valley a shot at winning when she hit a spot in the far corner of the court for a 26-25 lead.
But Mennonite's Zook threw up a huge block to stuff Panthers' big hitter Jenna Potts to knot the match at 26-all. A Schuylkill Valley passing error gave Mennonite a 27-26 lead and the Blazers won the game 28-26 on a Panthers' infraction, with the officials ruling that Schuylkill Valley had played the ball over the top of the net without allowing a Blazers' player to play it.
The Blazers were cruising in the second game but Schuylkill Valley's late charge was stunning. But instead of building off of the win, the Panthers saw the Blazers come out on fire in the third game.
"I was dinking the ball and it wasn't working," Rheinheimer said. "I finally decided to hit the ball."
Taking more aggressive swings was contagious. The Blazers started hitting through the blocks instead of going over them.
"We started playing how we know how to play in the third game," said Zook, a senior middle blocker for the Blazers, who had 16 blocks in the three matches.
"I think the loss in the second game was a real wake-up call," said Lancaster Mennonite coach Erin Martin. "They realized that if they didn't come out to play in that third game, their season would end. And they didn't want it to end tonight."
The Blazers' Erin LaVenice had a team-high 11 kills against Schuylkill Valley and Rachel Kennel had 10 in the James Buchanan match.
Wednesday's quarterfinal will be a battle of the No. 4 (Brandywine Heights) and No. 5 (Lancaster Mennonite) teams in the state as ranked by the latest PVCA poll.
"We had hoped to come out with the No. 1 seed (from the pool) but now we will have to play a No. 1," Martin said. "It will be a tough match but the girls will be ready for it."
Lampeter-Strasburg fails to advance: The Pioneers, the L-L League's other Class AA participant, went 0-for-3 in Pool C at Wilson and saw their season come to an end. L-S won the first game in its first match against Trinity but lost the second 26-24 and third, 25-19, to bow to the Shamrocks, 2-1.
Corrine Bitt had 13 kills and a block for L-S in the match.
The Pioneers were then swept by West York but got eight kills from Taylor Roland. L-S fell to Brandywine Heights, 2-1 with Roland picking up four kills and Karly Shultz a block.