The Southern Lehigh boys volleyball team’s Cinderella run to its first subregional tournament final ended in disappointment.

The seventh-seeded Spartans were down early and could not complete a comeback against top-seeded Dock Mennonite of District 1.

The Pioneers defeated Southern Lehigh 25-16, 25-22, 23-25, 25-14 at Catasauqua High School Thursday night to win the District 1/2/11 Class 2A title.

The Spartans (17-6), who are in their third season as a varsity program, will face District 7 champion Our Lady of Sacred Heart in the first round of the PIAA 2A tournament Tuesday at a site and time to be determined.

“It’s a great experience moving forward. They’re going to be very excited going into next year, with what we have, but we still play Tuesday night. We have to get ready,” Southern Lehigh coach Don West Jr. said. “First time in this subregional that we’ve made it into the final, a great experience. We knew it was a tough matchup for us.”

Dock Mennonite’s aggressive serve surprised Southern Lehigh early as the Pioneers registered six aces in the opening set. Dock Mennonite jumped out to a 10-3 lead in the first set and did not let the Spartans pull within three points.

“They were a solid team,” West said. “We knew it was going to be a tough match. (Dock Mennonite coach Kirby King) is a great coach, it’s a great program. They were the one-seed for a reason, they played a lot of good competition down in (District) 1, so we knew what they had. They had two big outsides, we just couldn’t stop them.”

In the second set, the Pioneers kept Southern Lehigh off balance by getting kills from multiple on each end of the court. Junior setter Lane Bergey recorded 13 of his 35 assists during a second set during which Dock Mennonite never trailed.

“We focus on serving, get a hard serve in, and after that every free ball we need to take with our hands and then I’ll dish it out to the pins and the middle. We got really good middles and good outsides so it’s easy for me,” Bergey said.

Southern Lehigh, which was without its lone senior, Rocco Corradini, made 14 serve errors throughout the match.

“We have four juniors and seven sophomores, so they’re young. I don’t know if it’s the big-game nerves. They made a mistake and then they didn’t get out of it quick enough,” West said of the Spartans’ serving.

Sophomore Hansen Fan and junior Trey West each tallied five kills in the third set as the Spartans built a 20-15 lead and held on to win the set 25-23.

In the fourth set, Dock Mennonite junior outside hitter Sean Gillespie had six kills and two aces, the second of which helped the Pioneers pull ahead 11-4. A block from Bergey clinched the set and match.

“Our coaches just really encouraged us and said, ‘We’re better than them. Just come out, no worries, let’s kill them in this set.’… It feels awesome, especially after we lost last year, we came in second last year. This feels awesome,” Bergey said.

Trey West finished with 15 kills and 15 digs while Fan added eight kills, six digs and three blocks.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com.

Desmond Boyle may be reached at dboyle@lehighvalleylive.com.

Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.

Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your California Privacy Rights (User Agreement updated 1/1/21. Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement updated 5/1/2021).

© 2022 Advance Local Media LLC. All rights reserved (About Us). The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local.

Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site.