No. 1 Derry breezes into WPIAL volleyball semifinals

By: HSSN Staff
Thursday, May 17, 2018 | 10:27 PM

The final score matched the seedings. No. 1 Derry was hosting No. 9 Bishop Canevin in the second match of a quarterfinals doubleheader on Thursday night in the WPIAL Class AA boys volleyball playoffs.

As was pretty much expected, Derry blanked Bishop Canevin, 3-0, to advance to the semifinals against No. 4 Montour, a 3-1 winner over No. 5 Seton-La Salle.

But wait just a minute. For Derry, it wasn't nearly as easy as it appeared. The Trojans spent the entire night fighting off a spirited effort by Bishop Canevin before coming away with winning scores of 25-21, 25-21 and 25-22.

“You never know what you might see in the playoffs,” Derry coach Shawn Spencer said.

After leading for the entire way en route to a three-point victory in the first game, Derry found itself fighting to stay in control midway through the second before surviving.

The Trojans were trailing Bishop Canevin at around the same spot of the third before rallying for a game-clinching victory.

“I'm very proud of the guys. They fought hard in all three sets,” Bishop Canevin coach Pete Barakat said. “I suppose our inexperience came back to get us. We weren't as sharp as Derry. But I can't complain about our work ethic.”

Bishop Canevin, in just its third season of varsity competition, has no seniors on its roster. The Crusaders started three freshmen.

John Kerr registered 13 kills and Jeff Perratone added 11 for Derry, which will face Montour in the semifinals on Tuesday at a yet-to-be-determined site.

“If we're not playing loose, usually frustration sets in for us,” Spencer said, “and I don't think we played loose tonight.”

Perhaps the Trojans were disinterested, considering their opponent.

“No, not at all,” Spencer said. “If anything, we were overly interested. I'd like to see what our demeanor will be going into the next match. I'll know more when we get to practice again. I didn't like the way we practiced this week. I don't know what it was. Maybe it's the weather. But I do know that it created a little tension tonight.”

Maybe it was Bishop Canevin's ability to keep the pressure on the Trojans all night that had Derry fussed up. The Crusaders forced numerous errors from every angle.

“We are not that bad of a serving team,” Spencer said, “but tonight, we encounted a lot of service errors. That's a perfect sign of tightness, yet we still found a way to win.”

Trailing 1-0 in the best-of-five games match, Bishop Canevin forged a 17-17 tie in the second before Perratone spiked a shot on an open spot on the floor to give Derry the lead for good.

The Trojans raced to a 6-1 lead in the third game and appeared to be headed for some momentum. But Bishop Canevin roared back to tie it, and the two teams waged a back-and-forth affair until Derry took a 23-22 lead and held on to clinch the match.

“We just couldn't seem to find it all night,” Spencer said. “I just felt like we lost focus every time we'd get a bit of a lead.”

Matt Menosky led Bishop Canevin with 15 kills.

Bishop Canevin was coming off a 3-0 victory over No. 8 Trinity in the first round, giving Barakat an idea for hope in the next round.

Asked if he was surprised by his team's level of tenacity against the tournament's top seed, Barakat didn't miss a beat.

“I thought we actually might have been a little under-seeded,” he said. “After that win over Trinity, I'd say we earned our way here.”

Dave Mackall is a freelance writer.

Dave Mackall is a freelance writer.

Tags: Bishop Canevin, Derry Area