SCRANTON \u2014 As Abington Heights boys volleyball players gathered for a group hug after receiving their individual medals and team plaque, parents and relatives captured the moment on their cellphone cameras for posterity.<\/p>\n
First-year head coach Jesse Edwards watched the joyous celebration a bump pass away, sporting a toothy grin while exchanging back slaps, high fives and handshakes with his assistant coaches, fans and other well-wishers.<\/p>\n
Their Comets were District 2 Class 3A champions for the second consecutive year, thanks to a nearly perfect performance in a 3-0 sweep of top-seeded Hazleton Area on Thursday evening at Scranton High School. Set scores of 25-17, 25-19 and 25-18 probably didn\u2019t reflect how much the No. 2 seed dominated play for extended stretches, basically from start to finish.<\/p>\n
No wonder everyone in Navy blue and white was downright giddy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel great,\u201d said Edwards, whose team will play host to the District 11 runner-up in the opening round of the PIAA tournament on June 2. \u201cThe whole season we had some flaws here and there, but today was the total package through all phases of the game: defense, offense. Our passing was crisp \u2026 and our serving was tough. \u2026 I\u2019m just happy they brought it all together at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Comets (14-5) didn\u2019t trail in either the second or third sets. In the opener, a couple hitting errors put them in an early 3-1 hole, before Nolan Moore rattled off eight straight service points to send Abington Heights on its way. Moore also contributed one kill, Ben Reese and Dan Beck teamed for a block and Beck put down another kill during the run. The Comets also benefited from Hazleton Area\u2019s uncharacteristically sloppy play.<\/p>\n
While the Cougars\u2019 nerves may have been a factor in their slow start, the Comets\u2019 ability to offset Hazleton Area\u2019s firepower at the net with a bunch of weapons also gave the Lackawanna League champions the upper hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no one guy on this team that stands out,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cEach game we have a different guy who will step up. I just told them (his players), \u2018I don\u2019t even know who leads the team in kills tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the record, Beck finished with a team-best 10 kills and four blocks and Reese was right behind with nine kills and three blocks. Chris Cummins added 21 digs; Ryan Horutz contributed 27 assists and 15 digs; and Billy Johnson helped with five blocks.<\/p>\n
Johnson\u2019s back-to-back kills gave the Comets their largest lead (15-4) in the first set, ahead of big hits by Reese and Moore later in the set. Kendrick Ortiz\u2019s blast inside the sideline, Jose Saladin\u2019s kill, Tyler Vargas\u2019 well-placed dink and a Sebastian Burgos kill off an Abington Heights block attempt tried to keep the Cougars close, but their deficit was too much to overcome as the Comets took a 1-0 lead in the match.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were a lot of rough spots that we weren\u2019t able to bounce back from,\u201d Hazleton Area coach Carmen Ramos said. \u201cI think the kids were visibly nervous in the beginning. By the time they picked it up, it was a little too late for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cougars (15-3) stayed at arm\u2019s length over the first half of the second set, until a few Comet mis-hits and aces by Ortiz and Daniel Posada pulled Hazleton Area into ties at 13 and 16. However, Beck delivered two kills from the middle of Abington Heights\u2019 front line to swing momentum back the Comets\u2019 way. Later, Johnson twice found open floor space with his own kills to send his team to a commanding two-set lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just so glad our whole team was able to work together. \u2026 I\u2019m so proud of everybody,\u201d Beck said. \u201cWe were very confident coming into the match after our (semifinal) win against Wilkes-Barre and we knew we could beat Hazleton if really tried our hardest and played the best we could. I have to give credit to our coaches, who motivated us the best they could on the bus ride here and in the locker room before the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite getting the Cougars\u2019 best effort, the Comets didn\u2019t relent in the third and what wound up as the final set. They got three straight service points, including an ace, from Beck at one juncture to snap a 3-all stalemate, before Johnson and Reese kills allowed them to keep Hazleton Area from generating any momentum. Not even Ortiz\u2019s three kills and Gian Rodriguez\u2019s sneaky two dinks could turn the tide the Cougars\u2019 way, as Abington Heights\u2019 lead fluctuated between three and seven points the rest of the way.<\/p>\n
The match\u2019s longest rally, which came late in the third set, served as a microcosm for how the evening played out for the two teams. Both made terrific digs and passes to keep the point alive, only to have it end when the Cougars hit the ball into the net.<\/p>\n
By then, the Comets were only two points from the victory and accompanying district title. The first came on a Hazleton Area hitting error and the second on Johnson\u2019s successful block.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got to give credit to our entire team \u2014 Ben Reese, Nolan Moore, Chris Cummins, Chase Beermann, Ryan Horutz,\u201d Beck said. \u201cThere are so many good players here. We all work together so well as a team. That\u2019s the beauty of it. There\u2019s not a single player who stands above anybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n
That made their postgame group celebration certainly fitting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are some teams with guys that hit 20 kills, but we\u2019ll have multiple guys with eight,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cI love that about our team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was probably more nervous before this match tonight than they were,\u201d he added. \u201cI want them to be loose and have fun, play together, and they did. They\u2019re kids. They just want to go out and play and have a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the final point, too.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Cougars will have plenty to celebrate in due time as its season ended. They enjoyed their most successful campaign since winning their only district title in 2000.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so proud of our boys,\u201d Ramos said. \u201cI told them, \u2018They have made me the happiest in all my years of coaching. They were the first ones to bring me here (to the championship game) as head coach. To be able to do this after winning only two games last season and flip this program around, I\u2019m so, so proud of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ortiz totaled 11 kills, 10 digs and four service points in his final match in a Hazleton Area uniform. Posada added 11 digs and five service points, including two aces, and Sebastian Burgos had 17 assists, 10 digs, three service points and two blocks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCRANTON \u2014 As Abington Heights boys volleyball players gathered for a group hug after receiving their individual medals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-199649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-high-school-sports","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}