NTL VOLLEYBALL: NEB TOPS NPL TO WIN PROGRAM'S FIRST DISTRICT TITLE (2023-10-03)
BY CHRIS MANNINGNorthern Tier Sports ReportATHENS — For three weeks Northeast Bradford worked on defending NP-Liberty’s offense, particularly at the net. The players would end practices dripping in sweat as they went over block after block after block. It seemed fitting, then, that the Panthers would get the match point on a block to claim the program’s first ever District IV, Class AA volleyball title Thursday.
“It feels insane, I feel on top of the world right now,” said libero Kiarra DeLancey.
Being on top of the world was a common feeling amongst her teammates after coming out on top 3-1.
“I’m so happy for my whole team, we did so amazing,” remarked Toni Herb.
“I wasn’t expecting it,” added Emma Neuber. “I wasn’t expecting it, but now that we’re here, there’s no going back now.”
This was NPL’s seventh straight district final, and NEB coach Vanessa Perez knew the Mounties were battle tested.
“They’re used to these high pressure situations, and we’re not,” she said. “We just had to stay level headed, and keep playing our game.”
She credits the fact that many of these girls are 3-year starters, or 3-year varsity letter winners as to how they stuck together during the match, especially when they were down in three of the four sets.
“It helps they’ve been playing a lot together,” said Perez. “It’s the same team for the last three years. And they just really wanted it. They’re all friends, and they get along really well, but more than anything, they believed they could win, they worked really hard. I preached games like this are won in practice, I don’t think we could have given anything else.”
The Panthers rallied from a 12-5 deficit to win the first set 25-21. They lost the second set 25-20, but then rallied again in the third set for a 25-19 win.
In the fourth set they nursed small leads until the end, when the two teams went back and forth. However, with them tied at 24-all an NPL attack that was out followed by an O’Connor block gave NEB the 26-24 win.
“It was very fitting that I ended everything on the block,” said O’Connor. “I didn’t want to give them another chance.”
The Panthers finished with a season high 10 blocks as a team, with O’Connor and Abby Chobot each getting four. Neuber and Herb had one block apiece.
“We worked a lot on blocking,” said O’Connor. “We had different people come in and hit on us. We knew it was going to be a challenge. We work a lot on defense, and I think it really, really paid off.”
O’Connor led the team with 17 kills but setter Gabby Susanj did a good job moving the ball around, as Neuber had 14 kills, Herb finished with 12 kills, and Abby Chobot notched three kills.
All in all Susanj had 42 assists on the day.
“We have three really good hitters I feel like, and we needed them all to play well,” said Perez. “They go up there, I’m like ‘swing hard, make them have to move. Don’t be scared - play smart but don’t be scared.’”
DeLancey led NEB with 31 digs, as Neuber finished with 21, Herb had 16, and Kelsea Moore notched 15.
“A little bit,” DeLancey said about how hard her forearms must have been hurting after that match. “But it’s so fun.”
“It was pretty hard to pick up some of their hits, but after a while I got used to it,” added Herb.
Adrian Chobot chipped in with nine as Susanj had five, O’Connor had four, and Abby Chobot finished with one.
It was the type of performance they needed to slow down a hard hitting team like NPL.
“We go really hard at practice,” Perez said. “I preach that to them. I promise you they’re not going to hit harder than I am at you. I’m on the box, I’m pounding it down. So I’m like, ‘don’t be scared.’”
On the service line O’Connor had three aces with Moore and Neuber getting two each.
It wasn’t a very inauspicious start for the Panthers, who found themselves down 12-5 in the first set. NPL had five kills during that stretch, but NEB had their fair share of mistakes with a pair of passing errors, two attacks that were out of bounds, a double touch, and a serve into the net.
“I was nervous when I first walked in,” remarked Susanj. “I literally couldn’t even stand I was shaking so bad.”
Perez called timeout to settle the team down.
“It was on us,” she said about their slow start. “We were the ones making the mistakes, that they weren’t earning the points. And I’m like, ‘if it’s on us, that means we can fix it.’”
NEB responded, though it took some time as NPL pushed their lead to 17-10.
However, the Mounties led NEB back into the match with three straight team errors to cut it to 17-13. After that an Herb kill made it a 3-point match, and it was NPL calling a timeout.
“I think most of their errors came from shanks off of our hits, and we just k new that if we kept hitting we had it in the bag,” Neuber said.
The two teams traded points on passing errors, then Herb had a block and a kill to make it 18-17.
After an NPL attack into the net tied things up Herb gave NEB their first lead since 3-2 with a kill.
A Reese Barrett hit tied things back up for NPL, but Herb came back with a kill of her own. A Mountie hit into the net saw NEB go up 21-19, but back to back blocks from Payton Chapel tied tings up again, and NEB called another timeout.
They would score the next four points, beginning with an NPL swing into the net. Neuber then got a kill, followed by another NPL attack that was out.
Abby Chobot finished things off with a kill for the 25-21 win.
“They just started having fun,” said Perez. “We had some players who really stepped up, and we have people who didn’t typically hit all season and then just came and hit today. I think everyone just enjoys being out there. I’m like, ‘don’t think about the ending yet, don’t think about the outcome. Enjoy this moment because it doesn’t happen often.’”
Herb really came alive down that stretch, scoring five of their final 11 points.
“I just found a spot on the court and I tried to hit it there,” she said. “I tried to do my best. I know they’re a very good team, so I just tried to hit it as hard as I could.”
The second set was 4-4 early, but then NPL’s Mckenna Lightner helped her team rattle off six straight points to take a 10-4 lead.
After an NEB point on an NPL miscue the Mounties scored three more points to go up 13-5.
Once again NEB rallied thanks to kills from Neuber, and two aces out of Moore, cutting it to 13-11.
NPL would answer with four straight points themselves to go up 17-11. They would hold off the Panthers, though NEB chipped away to make it 22-19 off a Neuber kill.
A Chapel hit, followed by a passing error from NEB put the Panthers on the brink. Neuber cut it to a 4-point deficit with a kill, but a sneaky push kill from Megan Spohn gave NPL the win, 25-20.
“Coming in I think we knew it wasn’t going to be a 3-set win,” DeLancey remarked. “We just knew we had to get back out there, we had to keep playing aggressively. Our offense was on fire tonight, so we just had to pick up our heads and put the ball down.”
The third set started much like the first two with NPL taking an 8-4 lead, but NEB scored six of the next seven points to go up 10-9.
“I guess we like to keep it interesting,” DeLancey said about the slow starts. “
O’Connor had a kill with two aces during that stretch, as Herb had a kill and a block.
The two teams traded points to 15-15 when the Panthers took the lead on an NPL hit that went out of bounds.
Back to back kills from O’Connor pushed the Panther edge to 18-15 and NPL called a timeout to regroup.
They would score the next two points, but another hitting error from the Mounties, followed by an Herb kill, saw NEB re-extend their lead to 20-17.
A Chapel block followed by a Panther attack that missed the mark made it a 1-point set again.
That’s as close as NPL got, though, as Abby Chobot ended the run with a kill, followed by a Neuber block, to make it 22-19.
The timeout didn’t work for the Mounties as Herb served up an ace. NPL then had back to back hits that were off the mark to give the Panthers a 25-19 win.
“Coming off of a lost set is really hard, so I think taking that really gained our momentum,” said Neuber.
Despite their 19-1 regular season record NEB did have times during the season when they got themselves in trouble, and worked their way out of it.
“It was really bad at the beginning of the season against Wellsboro,” explained Neuber. “But we just keep our heads in the game, and we don’t let anything get to us anymore.”
The fourth set was a bit of a reversal of fortune as NEB took an early 8-5 lead on the strength of three O’Connor hits.
They also dug in defensively, repelling three straight NPL attacks when they were down 5-4, eventually forcing an NPL passing error to knot the score up.
An Herb kill on the line would make it 9-6 NEB but that’s when NPL scored four straight to make it 10-9.
Neb came back with four points of their own, including a Moore ace, and kills from Neuber and Abby Chobot for a 13-10 advantage.
The Mounties rallied again, tying things up at 13-13 before back to back kills from Neuber and O’Connor saw the Panthers go back up 15-13.
After a Panther attack landed out they kept winning, with Neuber scoring a kill, followed by O’Connor getting a block for a 17-14 advantage.
“It felt amazing,” Neuber said about them getting out in front for once. “I was kind of nervous when they were coming back, but knowing that we have a lead felt better for me to just go ahead and hit.”
The Mounties would use two kills and an ace to tie it up once again, this time at 17, NEB continued to hold serve, scoring three straight off back to back kills from O’Connor.
The Panthers, though, let NPL back in it with back to back errors. NPL then got a block, followed by a kill from Saige Lehman to go up 21-20, their first lead since 5-4.
O’Connor responded with a kill to tie things up. An NEB passing error put NPL back up, but then a kill from Neuber, and a block out of Abby Chobot put the panthers up 23-22.
NEB’s next serve was out tying things up, but Neuber put the Panthers back ahead with a kill for a 24-23 lead.
A kill out of Ella Swingle made it 24-24, but their next attack was out, giving NEB the serve back.
“I had to go serve, so it was a little stressful,” said DeLancey about match point. “I just knew I had to put the ball in play because our team can play defense.”
O’Connor then rotated back in, and finished them off with an emphatic block.
She finished that final set with a match high seven kills to help her team hold off NPL.
“I couldn’t have done it without my team,” she said. “They’re my best friends. They’re my inspirations. They’re all amazing.”
O’Connor couldn’t wait to get back out there as she watched from the bench.
“It’s really stressful, I was biting my nails off,” she remarked. “I’m yelling and screaming, but I have full faith in my team.”
That kicked off a party on NEB’s side of the net as the fans stormed the court, and players were left in tears of joy.
“It was very nerve racking,” Herb said about the final stretch. “I was so excited. I think that’s what kept me up, the excitement, and I was so happy for my whole team. We were so good.”
They’ll get District II powerhouse Holy Redeemer in the first round of states, likely at NEB on Tuesday of next week.
Redeemer blew through the District II playoffs in straight sets, winning the title match against Dunmore 25-17, 25-13, and 25-10.
Still, NEB isn’t fazed after the season they’ve been having.
“I think our blocking was better than it’s been tonight,” said DeLancey. “Our defense was great. I think probably a little bit of tip coverage, that seemed to be a little bit of a weak spot for us, but I feel leek this gives us a lot of confidence going into our state game. We’re just going to continue to work hard and practice, and just keep doing what we’re doing.”
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PHOTO CAPTION: NEB players celebrate after winning the district title over NP-Liberty…PHOTOS BY CHRIS MANNING
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