Bears Hand Mounts four set Loss

It was Rudy Woitas Night on Thursday at Elizabethtown.

And not just because he soared through the air with the greatest of ease and slammed down 21 kills for the Bears’ boys volleyball team. Turns out Woitas is Elizabethtown’s lone 12th-grader, and he was honored on Senior Night before a Lancaster-Lebanon League Section Two clash against Ephrata.

Then he went out and dominated the Mountaineers, piling up big spike after tantalizingly big spike in Elizabethtown’s 3-1 victory. Set scores were 25-22, 21-25, 25-22 and 25-13, as the Bears (5-1) remained in a second-place tie with Manheim Central, which beat Lebanon 3-0.

Garden Spot (7-0) kept its hold on the top slot in the section chase with a 3-0 victory over Lancaster Mennonite on Thursday. Elizabethtown is at Manheim Central tonight in yet another key Section Two clash.

“If we want to stay right in the section race, we’ll need to beat them,” Elizabethtown coach Lamar Fahnestock said of tonight’s trip to Manheim. “Anything is possible, but we’ll need a win to stay alive. It feels great to be here, and I’m happy for our kids because they’re out there playing and competing.”

Thursday’s first set was epic with seven ties, the last at 20-20. That’s when Elizabethtown got hot. Damien Tobias mixed in back-to-aces — the Bears served superbly throughout — and Woitas and Matt Gilhool (7 kills) had spikes for a 2421 lead. Woitas’ slam capped it, and Elizabethtown had a 1-0 lead.

Ephrata put on its rally caps and won the second set behind Jordan Buch, who had a monster match with 25 kills, 13 digs and a pair of blocks. Buch’s slam knotted the second set at 19-19, and he added four kills down the stretch, keying Ephrata’s game-clinching 4-0 spurt for a 1-1 tie.

“He’s a big boy,” Woitas said of Buch. “We called him Goliath. He’s a really good hitter.”

Bryan Murray (seven kills) provided a spark for Elizabethtown in the third game with a pair of mid-set kills for a 13-7 lead. The Bears had a 20-13 cushion before the Mounts mounted a comeback, closing to 22-20 on Colin Weber’s kill. But Murray and Tobias had clutch kills late, and Elizabethtown hung on for a 2-1 lead.

“That was huge,” Fahnestock said. “We’re really young, and at any given time we have four guys out there who are basically freshmen, after missing last year.”

“I was really happy with how we responded there,” Woitas added. “Bryan and Matt worked really well in the middle, and that gave us a chance. And we all really clicked together with the serves.”

Dylan Shepherd set up 35 assists and Billy O’Connell had nine digs to help Elizabethtown’s cause.

While Thursday’s first three sets dripped with drama, Elizabethtown never really let Ephrata in it in the fourth; the Bears got back-to-back kills from Woitas for a quick 6-2 edge. Later, Elizabethtown mustered 6-0 and 5-0 runs — the latter for a 22-11 edge on Woitas’ kill — and Tobias’ spike closed out the match.

“Now we have some teams we have to beat, and it gets really important,” Ephrata coach Bob Witwer said. “We’re definitely capable.”

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