The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
Volleyball
The Vikings found themselves trailing in the third set, but a 6-0 run keyed by Wright and Danielle Chung put them ahead at 14-11 and they never looked back. Wright and Chung finished the night with 17 and 15 kills, respectively.
Upper Merion is led by six seniors: Wright, Chung, Emily Gallagher, Cameron Brady, Kelly Moore and Katelyn O’Brien. That experience is what the Vikings believe set them apart from the competition.
“Oh definitely, the experience makes a huge difference,” Funsten explained. “When you have younger players, you tend to give up big runs when things are going bad. With our players, we can figure out what’s going wrong and right the ship without giving up more than a few points.”
“We can communicate by yelling or even with just a look,” Wright added. “Our team has played so much together and we know what we need to do to play well.”
Thursday night marked the third loss Pope John Paul has suffered at the hands of Upper Merion in 2018. The two teams clashed twice in September, with the Vikings prevailing, 3-1, both times.
“They just out-played us tonight,” Golden Panthers coach Ryan Sell said. “We’ve had a few injuries and had to change things up since the last time we played, but they played great defense and deserved to win.”
“I wouldn’t consider this a rivalry, even though we met last year in the final. I want the conference to be as strong as possible so we can all make each other better in time for districts. We don’t have to play Upper Merion in districts, so they just make us better.”