Intel Boys Volleyball Coverage!

Posted by Drew Markol on the Intel Boys Volleyball Notebook

It hasn’t taken Archbishop Wood and coach Brendan Ledwith long to get a handle on this boys volleyball thing.

In just their second season with a varsity program — the Philadelphia Catholic League added boys volleyball in 2014 — the Vikings are priming themselves for a (another) nice playoff run.

Off to a 4-0 start in the PCL, Wood finds itself alone in first place, with Lansdale Catholic and La Salle both sitting at 4-1.

(Cardinal O’Hara, Roman Catholic, Archbishop Ryan, Archbishop Carroll, Monsignor Bonner and Saint Joseph’s Prep are the six other programs that make up the nine-team league.)

More importantly for the Vikings, two of their four PCL victories have come over the Crusaders (by a 3-1 count) and the Explorers (3-2).

It was La Salle that beat the Vikings in the District 12 championship match a year ago.

Overall, Wood is 7-1, with the lone loss coming against neighbor William Tennent 3-0 in a non-league affair. (Considering the Panthers are in a tie with Pennsbury for the top spot in the tough Suburban One League National Conference at 4-0, the Vikings’ loss to Tennent doesn’t look too bad).

“They play well together, and you can see that they’re getting better,” Tennent coach Jim Creighton said after facing Wood. “Brendan is doing a really good job with them.”

Of the nine PCL programs, only La Salle, Roman Catholic and Saint Joe’s are in Class AAA. The other six, including Wood, play in Class AA (the smaller-enrollment classification).

In contrast, the 23 programs that play in District One are all in Class AAA, including Christopher Dock. The Pioneers, with a male enrollment of only 119 in grades nine through 11 (which is how the PIAA measures enrollment), would be the second-smallest Class AA program if they were in District 12.

So, when the District 12 playoffs arrive, the Vikings will be looking to return to the title game. In 2014, they lost to Engineering and Science but still qualified for the PIAA tournament, losing in the first round to North Pocono of District Two.

“My guys are working really hard, and it was a really good match against La Salle,” Ledwith said.