New Hope Lions roar back to beat Neshaminy

Perhaps the only thing hotter than the Fred Gerst Gymnasium at Neshaminy High School on Sept. 15 was the New Hope-Solebury girls volleyball team.
After opening the season with a 3-0 shutout win over Bensalem Sept. 10 on their home court, the Lions proved their mettle on the road, coming back from an 0-2 deficit to get past the Skins 3-2 and go 2-0 on the season.
“It was so exciting. We were all really into it,” exclaimed New Hope-Solebury junior outside hitter Mia Chuma.
“We really wanted to come back after those two losses so we said ‘just build one point upon another.’
“We did that together and we finished strong.”
Absolutely.
After dropping the first two sets, 20-25 and 22-25, the Lions roared back with 25-19 and 25-16 wins to deadlock the sides at 2-all.
When it took a 12-5 edge in the rubber match, New Hope looked like it was on its way to a crushing victory in game five. The Skins bounced back however with a 7-0 run capped by an Alivia Nocito kill to tie the final set at 12-all.
Neshaminy committed a pair of hitting errors for the next two points but it was not until Lions junior middle Lilly Kraemer posted up with a block at the net, that the New Hope faithful breathed a collective sigh of relief after a 15-13 victory.
With a 10-4 lead early on in game one, the Lions actually looked like they were on their way to a win when the Skins bounced back with an 11-3 run to take a 15-13 lead.
A 9-4 scoring spurt by Neshaminy put the home team up 24-17 late and while senior Amy Tao came up with a couple of points for the visitors, New Hope went down 25-20 when Anastasia Vasilyeva blocked a ball at the net for the winning point that favored the hosts.
The second set was closer, though the Lions lost 25-22. Neshaminy’s last two points in the game came by way of unforced errors committed by New Hope.
“I think it was just nerves,” explained Chuma. “(This was) our first official away game.”
“Our first game, we had a huge student section at home,” added Kraemer. “Getting used to being away and not having that same kind of energy definitely is a little bit of a lower playing level.
“It’s just getting used to each other, getting used to our opponent and what we need to do to better ourselves.”
New Hope takes the court this season for the first time without the services of opposite Cooper Sorin, libero Alison Somers and Grace Hanley, a three-year starter at setter. All three graduated in June while Hanley and Somers were All-Suburban One League (SOL) nominees.

The Lions are led this season by seniors Amy “A.T.” Tao, Maria “Ri Ri” D’Agostino and Violet Cole-Glick, one of a group of three setters on the team that includes sophomores Anna Leasure and Aubrey Turner.
New Hope, which had a 4-1 overall mark through Tuesday, has just two freshmen, Emma Viehweger, a libero, and Emily Nowakowski, a defensive specialist.
There are no team captains, however, Tao and Chuma are the undefined leaders for the Lions, many times guiding the squad at practice and at team meetings.
“I let them have a voice; this is their team. They are true leaders,” said New Hope head coach Chris Marchok.
In the dramatic win at Neshaminy, the Lions trailed 14-16 midway through game three before tying the score on a block by Tao and a kill by Kraemer. From there, they closed with a 9-3 run for a 25-19 victory. New Hope’s late scoring spurt included a kill and a block by Chuma and a pair of aces by Tao. Junior middle blocker Chloe McMillen also chipped in with a kill.
Leasure was a force to be reckoned with in game four. When she wasn’t setting Chuma up with opportunistic chances to kill, she was giving the ball just a little nudge over the net for kills of her own.
“Volleyball is this beautiful blend of rhythm and power, and we turned a little more power and a little more aggressive in the third set and I think it carried through,” explained Marchok.
While Neshaminy’s late run made the New Hope faithful sweat perhaps just a little more than they already were (the gym was really hot), game five was the icing on the cake.
“It feels great; it’s awesome,” said Kraemer. “It feels like all of our hard work pays off.
“I feel like as a team, we came together and there’s such great energy after winning such a stressful match like that.”
At no point in the pairing, added Kraemer, did the Lions ever concede a loss to the Skins, not even when they trailed 0-2.
“We come together as a team and bring each other up,” said Kraemer. “We have to be in the mindset of ‘We’re going to do this. We’re going to win.’”
“And that’s what we did.”

@stevesherman222 on Twitter

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