Garden Spot eliminates Mounts

The second sets in both Lancaster-Lebanon Boys’ Volleyball League quarterfinal matches were critical Friday night.

In each, the team that had lost the first set, Cocalico and Ephrata, had late second set leads, threatening to square the match.

In both cases, the team that won the first set, Penn Manor and Garden Spot, roared back to win those second sets.

The result was 3-0 sweeps for both Penn Manor and Garden Spot in the doubleheader played at Garden Spot.

In the opener, the Comets defeated Cocalico, 25-19, 25-20, 25-18, and in the nightcap, the Spartans topped Ephrata, 25-21, 26-24, 25-19.

Like Cocalico in the first match, Ephrata’s chance to extend its match with Garden Spot beyond the three-set minimum came in the second set.

The Mounts (8-10) scored four straight points, two on kills by John Tomayko, to take a 23-22 lead. Alex Myers got a point back for Spot but Nick Farlow (match-high 18 kills, two blocks, eight digs) put Ephrata in position to win with a 24-22 lead.

A pair of Ephrata hitting errors and an Austin Sindall block put the Spartans (15-1) back in the lead at 25-24. The Mounts then had trouble passing Aaron Straubel’s float serve and Micah Hostetter put away an easy ball at the net for the Garden Spot win and a 2-0 lead.

“At some point, maybe our youth showed through a little bit," said Ephrata coach Bob Witwer, whose team starts three sophomores and two juniors. “We’ll have to grow from it."

Garden Spot, which got 11 kills apiece from Alex Myers and Matt High, led from start to finish in the third set to take the match. Spot’s Sindall finished with three blocks and two aces.

“This team just fights," Garden Spot coach Ben Rutt said of the Spartans. “Every time we get to the 16-point, 18-point spot in a set, we buckle down and get better and seem to find a way to turn it on."

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