Thursday night, the Spring Grove boys volleyball team won the role of David in next week’s retelling of the “David and Goliath” story, better known as the District 3 Championships.

The Rockets put up a two-game sweep against a young Northeastern team, 15-11, 15-11, to qualify for the district tournament, which starts Tuesday evening.

Unfortunately for the Spring Grove contingent, that match likely will be against Hempfield, the consensus No. 1 team in the state.

“I would have like to have been second or third, but our (earlier) losses to Central York and Susquehannock hurt us,” Rockets coach Chris Stock said. “But our goal was to make districts and go from there.”

And with that battle against the Black Knights happening next week, Stock will just enjoy having earned some bragging rights over Bobcats head coach Matt Wilson, a friend and co-worker.

Riding the emotion of Senior Night, the Rockets (6-4, 7-5) jumped out to an early lead in game one at 6-3. The lead then stretched to 11-5 behind a pair of kills and a stuff block by Chris Warner during a four-point service run by Jordan Showers. Northeastern pulled within two at 13-11 but a Bobcats hitting error and a Dirk Anderson ace closed out the first game.

Northeastern ran off the first four points of game two, two coming off stuff blocks by Justin Shelley. While not happy about falling behind, Stock knew that his team had a comeback in them.

“I was just hoping my kids would keep battling, keep siding out and chip away (at the lead),” he said.

Sure enough, the Rockets settled down and got within a point at 6-5 when Troy Myers stuffed a Bobcat middle attack. It was during that stretch that Wilson felt Spring Grove’s experience made its biggest impact.

“They have a lot of seniors and it showed,” Wilson said. “Our kids started tightening up. Spring Grove just kept playing their game. A big match like this is not a big deal for them.”

Still, Northeastern (5-5, 6-6) maintained a lead until Showers stepped to the service line once again. He tied the game at nine with a clean ace that landed untouched just inside the Bobcats’ endline.

Two big stuff blocks, one a solo job by Braden Reynolds, gave the home-standing team an 11-9 lead. The two teams traded sideouts and points until Spring Grove finished off the game with a kill by Anderson (10 for the night) and a Northeastern hitting error.

After going 1-9 last season, Wilson knew that finishing .500 wasn’t anything to be ashamed of, especially considering the number of players in just their second year of playing the sport.

“I wasn’t happy with our aggressiveness, but I think that’s indicative of how young we are. But we’ve come a long way from last year,” said Wilson.