The Abington Heights boys volleyball team found itself in a challenging spot this season, refocused, and recovered.<\/p>\n
Now, the Comets are back in the PIAA Class 3A playoffs.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Abington Heights (15-5), the two-time District 2 champion, hosts Whitehall (18-5) in the first round at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n
In the Class 2A tournament, Masterman (10-7) plays at District 2 champion Crestwood (18-2) at 6 p.m. on Tuesday. Holy Redeemer (19-3), the District 2 runner-up, plays at Brandywine Heights (18-2), the runner-up from District 3, on Wednesday at 6 p.m.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think that as a team, we started working better together,\u201d Abington Heights first-year coach Jesse Edwards said. \u201cWhen all things click together, it works well. We have worked on our blocking and passing, and we seem to be peaking at the right time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been awesome. I was a fan last year and watched them have success. I knew some of the guys through the years. I had high hopes coming into the season. Now that we are in the state playoffs, this is an extra thrill to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abington Heights had a challenging part of the schedule in late April. The Comets had a rematch against Bethlehem Freedom, the team they beat in the first round of the state tournament last season, and lost 3-0.<\/p>\n
Three days later, Abington Heights played at Holy Redeemer, the District 2 Class 2A runner-up. The Comets lost 3-0.<\/p>\n
Back-to-back defeats heading into a Lackawanna League showdown with Valley View. Ben Reese had 15 kills in a thrilling and tense five-set win that tied the two teams for first place and forced a playoff game for the championship.<\/p>\n
After the regular season, which included a loss to District 2 Class 2A champion Crestwood, Abington Heights defeated Valley View again to defend its title. Chris Cummins had 20 digs and four aces, Ryan Horutz had 33 assists, and Dan Beck had 11 kills.<\/p>\n
Abington Heights carried that momentum into the District 2 Class 3A playoffs as the No. 2 seed. The Comets powered past Scranton, 3-0, beat Wilkes-Barre Area, 3-1, and swept top-seeded Hazleton Area, 3-0, to win a second straight championship.<\/p>\n
Junior Nolan Moore leads the Comets with 238 kills. Beck has 185, Reese has 155, and Billy Johnson has 152. Horutz runs the high-powered offense with 645 assists.<\/p>\n
Whitehall reached the District 11 championship match with an upset of top-seeded Parkland in the semifinals. The Zephyrs lost in the final to Emmaus.<\/p>\n
Jayden Haik, Omari Ratliff, Cole Rozycki, and Cole Richards lead Whitehall. Kole Moyer runs the offense and has more than 2,000 career assists.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout question, our passing is the key,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cWithout that, we can\u2019t get our middles going. That is the key to our success. Our guys are tall at 6-4 and 6-5. If we can get them going, that is very important for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Class 2A<\/p>\n
Crestwood heads into the state playoffs as the district winner after avenging two losses to Holy Redeemer in the regular season.<\/p>\n
JJ Stec leads the Comets with 501 kills this season. He has 896 kills in the last two seasons.<\/p>\n
Eric Rinehimer is second on the team with 237 kills, and Larry Little has 194. Luke Joseph has 602 digs, and Zach Koons has 817 assists.<\/p>\n
Omar Abouelatta, Jonathan Djoenaidi, Demetris Brown, Drake Wu, and Joseph Chen lead Masterman.<\/p>\n
Holy Redeemer faces a challenge against Brandywine Heights, which is ranked fourth in the state by the Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association.<\/p>\n
Junior Koirey Tang leads Holy Redeemer, which has six players with more than 100 kills, with 286 kills this season. Sebastian Cooney has 222 kills, Jack Wasiakowski has 202, Jack McCue has 178, Brandon Delbalso has 147, and Max Mohutsky has 115.<\/p>\n
Wasiakowski is a four-year starter for the Royals. He has 377 kills, 324 digs, 3,105 assists, and 786 service points with 122 aces in his career.<\/p>\n
Nate Winkler, Eagen Coffin, Kido Hogan, Owen Tomasi, Joey Dorio, and Auston Ambruster lead Brandywine Heights.<\/p>\n
PIAA PLAYOFFS<\/p>\n
CLASS 3A:\u00a011-2 Whitehall (16-4) at 2-1 Abington Heights (15-5), Tuesday, 7 p.m.<\/p>\n
CLASS 2A:\u00a012-3 Masterman (10-7) at 2-1 Crestwood (18-2), Tuesday, 6 p.m.<\/p>\n
CLASS 2A: 2-2 Holy Redeemer (19-3) at 3-2 Brandywine Heights (18-2), Wednesday, 6 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Abington Heights boys volleyball team found itself in a challenging spot this season, refocused, and recovered. Now,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-208094","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\/208094","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=208094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}