Upstart Patriots knock off District 2 power Lake-Lehman in PIAA first round action Tuesday.
05/30/01 http://www.mcall.com/html/index/highsch.htm
By STEPHANIE WASEK http://www.mcall.com/html/sports/high/c_pg006vbstef.htm
Of The Morning Call
Thanks to Freedom, Lake-Lehman is officially on a losing streak.
It's been a long time since that happened.
The District 2 volleyball power had won 136 straight matches and eight consecutive district titles until this year's district final, which the Knights dropped to North Pocono.
At Liberty's Memorial Gym Tuesday, Freedom, which upset Allen in the District 11 championship, topped Lake-Lehman 15-7, 15-8, 15-9 in the first round of the PIAA playoffs.
Behind Zach Mooney's service game, Mike Mooney's passing and Chris Stryker's defense, the Patriots rendered the Knights' most dominant player, 6-5 senior middle Matt Dunn, a veritable non-factor.
"I was a little nervous, because they were unfocused in practice last week," said Freedom coach John Yanek.
"It took them a couple of days to come off the excitement of beating Allen, but by the end of the week they had settled down and were practicing well.
"We had scouted them, so we knew some strategies to beat them. We just had to stick to the game plan."
The Patriots took control early in the first set, going on a 6-3 run that resulted in a 9-4 lead. Dunn came up big on Lake-Lehman's next three points, making his presence briefly known.
After a timeout, the Patriots put a stop to the Knights' rally at 9-7 and, with possession, played an aggressive, high-energy style. They reeled off six straight points for the victory.
"We focused on the serve -- it went almost every place we wanted it to go," Yanek said. "And we only ran the middle when we had lollipop passes.
"We knew we had to serve hard so they couldn't pass and set up for [Dunn]."
Freedom started slowly in the second set, and it looked as though the Knights were beginning to hit their stride.
The Patriots were down 7-0 thanks to miscommunication and sloppy play, but Yanek stepped in and utilized a timeout to calm his team.
Once again, it worked.
Freedom took possession right after the break, and junior Zach Mooney won 10 consecutive service games to lead the comeback and set-two victory.
"I just knew I had to do something to get us out of [that deficit]," said Mooney, who had 14 service points, including four aces, in the match.
"It was just a matter of keeping our heads in the game; once we started talking [to each other] we would come back together and play better."
Zach Mooney also had 15 kills. Sophomore Mike Mooney, Zach's brother, served out the second set, winning the last five points. He added 24 assists.
Senior Tyler Zeigler got the Patriots out of the 5-0 hole into which they fell early in the third set.
His spike gave Freedom possession, and put Mike Mooney on serve, during which the Patriots pulled to within one, at 6-5. Then he served them into a 7-7 tie, shortly after which Freedom went on a 7-1 run to go up 14-8.
Zeigler finished with six kills.
Steve Stryker, who registered nine kills and a team-high nine digs, served the last point to win the match.
"We had no idea what to expect, but once we beat them those first few points, got those first few kills … we were hitting the holes, and it made us less nervous," said Stryker, a senior. "We couldn't have done it -- come back from down seven and down five -- if it hadn't been all of us coming together." · Freedom will play best-of-three-sets matches in round-robin format pool play Friday in Shippensburg to determine whether it will advance.
In Saturday's semifinals, the Pool A (East) winner will face the Pool B (West) second-place team and vice-versa. The final will also be held Saturday.
The pools are posted on www.piaa.org.
· Contact Stephanie Wasek 610-778-2239 [email protected]