The weight of expectations having been lifted a few weeks ago, the postseason runs that ended for Hempfield and Garden Spot in the state tournament semifinals Saturday came without too much sting.
Hempfield's Shawn Sangrey hammers a spike against Central York.
Mike Becker, left, and Josh Mealy miss a block during game three.
Garden Spot's Dean Wanner, left, returns a shot over Wyomissing's Douglas Weidman.
Garden Spot's Robert Law trys to get a shot passed Matthew Zardecki of Wyomissing.
Not that both teams _ Hempfield in Class AAA and Garden Spot in Class AA _ didn't put up great fights.
Hempfield, though, met a team that it could not beat with predominantly one strong hitter. On this day, anyway. The result was a 3-1 loss to Central York.
Garden Spot succumbed to a team, Wyomissing, that got hot at the right time and rode the feeling to a state championship. Wyomissing topped the Spartans, 3-0
Hempfield, a two-time defending state champion, ran into a Central York team that was too deep on the hitting and blocking end to overcome with its best player and, according to other coaches, the best player in the state in Shawn Sangrey.
Sangrey generated 37 kills in the loss to the Panthers, who won the match 25-21, 25-17, 25-27, 25-16. But Central York had four players with double-digit kills. Hempfield simply could not get up a good enough block to stop that offense.
"We're just one-dimensional," said Hempfield coach Mike Vogel, talking about the Black Knights' offense. "Plus, (Friday) we passed well, today we did not."
Central York's serve threw off Hempfield's passing just enough that Hempfield setter Mike Becker couldn't get the ball to Sangrey in the right spots enough of the time.
On the flip side, and certainly in Central York's favor, the Panthers were able to direct their sets away from Sangrey's block.
"It was a cat and mouse game," Vogel said. "They disguised their offense and we disguised our block. But they have an experienced setter (John Almquist) and he was able to set away from Shawn."
Central York, which lost to Hempfield in district pool play a couple of weeks ago, came from behind to win the first game, scoring the last four points to break a 21-21 tie. Bubby Martin's kill and Ryan Wolf's block were keys in that late spurt for the Panthers.
"They didn't make any errors," said Becker, who tried to spread his sets around to get the ball away from Central York's block. Mike Panico had five kills and Pat Donohue four.
Central York led most of the way in the second game with Wolf picking up many of his team-high 18 kills.
Hempfield made a late run in the third game and the game was tied five times down the stretch before a serve error and a hitting error gave Hempfield the game, 27-25.
The Panthers didn't let the Black Knights sustain the momentum from that third game win. Central York scored five straight points to expand its lead to 17-10. Hempfield (19-6) couldn't recover.
"They always put up a good block and they were 'on' today," Sangrey said.
In an all-District Three AAA final, Central York fell to Cumberland Valley, 3-2.
"This group will be lost in the shuffle of Hempfield teams because we've had so many good teams," Vogel said.
"But what this group (with just one starter returning from last season) did is unreal. It was quite an accomplishment. We played on the last day. We just didn't play in the last match."
Garden Spot missed that last match of the day, too, but a look at the whole picture indicates that making it to Saturday's semis was, like Hempfield's, quite an accomplishment.
But Wyomissing played like a team on a mission. Despite emerging from the District Three Tournament as the fourth-place team, Wyomissing won the state tournament, beating Ambridge in the final, 3-2.
But Wyomissing had to get through Garden Spot first and did so with wire-to-wire wins in the match's first two games, 25-19, 25-13. That made for an uphill battle for Garden Spot, which seemed to lose some of its game compared to Friday's pool play.
"We knew that if we wanted to win, we had to put up a solid block and serve well and that was off and on," said Garden Spot's Dean Wanner, who had 10 kills, two blocks and an ace in the match.
The Spartans went up by 15-11 in the third game on a Wanner block but a Wyomissing timeout changed the momentum. Wyo scored 14 of the next 20 points and won the game easily, 25-19.
Michael Bunting led the way for Wyomissing with 23 kills.
"We knew who Wyomissing's go-to guys (Bunting and Matt Zardecki) were," said Spartans' coach Scott Garman.
"We wanted to stop them and let everyone else beat us. But our block wasn't as tight as it needed to be and they took advantage of hitting through every hole."
Dan Smucker led Garden Spot with 12 kills and Robert Law had three blocks.
The run may have ended one match short of a title shot but Garden Spot had never made it out of district pool play before this season. This was also a team that finished second in Section Two of the L-L League and was one-and-done in the league playoffs.
Yet, they made it to the state's Class AA final four.
"We challenged these seniors as freshmen, to change their priorities and not to be satisfied with section or league things," Garman said.
"We expected this group to compete here and those freshmen worked and raised their expectations."
Maybe Wanner put the Spartans' feeling best.
"After four years of hard work, I'd rather have it end in this building than anywhere else."
E-mail: kfreeman@lnpnews.com
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