Butler volleyball rallies to defeat P-R
BUTLER TWP — Taking down Pine-Richland’s boys volleyball team means withstanding the play of outside hitters Doolin Stober and Luke Jancy, a task that proved to be a tall one for Butler Tuesday night.
A 6-feet-8 sophomore and 6-4 junior, respectively, Stober and Jancy combined for 32 kills, but a late rally lifted the Golden Tornado to victory in the first section match of the season by scores of 25-17, 19-25, 25-23, 19-25 and 15-12.
“This team has been down and come back before,” said Butler coach Lew Liparulo of his squad. “They have tenacity and tonight, when we got down, they fought for every point.
“To get used to the fire, you have to get in it every once in a while.”
Things did not look good for Butler. Stober and Jancy were in a rhythm that had the Rams within three points of walking out of the Tornado’s gym with a win. But trailing 12-10 in the final set, a block from Coleton Welter sparked the hosts to a 5-0 run to end the match.
Kills from Ben Grossman and Alec Teff helped Butler retain the serve and ironically, it was a kill attempt by Stober that sailed long that accounted for the final point.
“We knew they had some really good hitters, said Butler junior outside hitter Mason Anderson. ”Late (in the fifth set), we just focused on making good passes and keeping the energy up. We didn’t worry about anything else.“
The Tornado were clearly the better team in the first set, but the road was not as smooth afterward. After dropping the second set, Butler received a kill from Teff to win the third by two points.
Stober finished the night with 18 kills and Jancy tallied 14. Their play helped Pine-Richland pull away in the fourth and force a deciding fifth set.
Welter had 16 kills to lead Butler and Anderson came up with 10.
“Mason fills in the gaps for us,” Liparulo said. “I usually have him in a rotation, but he was very consistent tonight and left him in.”
In an incredibly tough section, Stober and Jancy just may be able to lead the Rams into taking a big step forward this season.
“Doolin brings a lot of energy with his swings and kills,” said Rams coach Tyler Trimbath. “We won a total of five sets last year. To be able to come up here and compete like we did tonight against one of the better teams in the section, this is big for us. Hopefully, it’s the new normal.”
Peter Zulick added six blocks for the Tornado.
Butler (2-1, 1-0) plays at North Hills on Thursday.
