Ask any high school volleyball team if they like playing five set matches and the most common answer would be no but the Elizabethtown boys' team would be one of the few that might answer yes. The reason, back-to-back five set wins have the Bears in sole possession of second place in Section Two with just over two weeks remaining in the regular season.
The first of those five set wins came on April 15th when Cocalico came to town. E-town dropped the opening set 25-20 but laid the groundwork for the 3-2 victory by outlasting the Eagles 33-31 in a marathon second set. The Bears kept control and positioned themselves for the win by taking the third set 25-23. Cocalico had other ideas and knotted the match at 2-2 with a 25-21 win in the fourth set. Elizabethtown was able to secure the victory with a 15-8 win in the deciding set. Nate Seeger dished out 55 assists to go with two aces. Jacques Mortha tallied 18 kills and four blocks. Jake Sevcik added 33 digs to the winning effort.
One day later, E-town topped Lancaster Mennonite by the same 3-2 final. This time the Bears found themselves on the ropes thanks to 27-25 and 25-18 Blazer wins to open the match. Elizabethtown bounced back with three straight wins (25-21, 25-13, 17-15) to leave town with the victory and a 7-3 overall record. Seeger's monster game included 47 assists, 13 digs and one ace with Nick Chapman adding 13 kills, 15 digs and one ace. Mortha collected 20 kills and Sevcik 20 digs while Gavin Gilhool chipped in with four blocks.
TRACK
The track teams made their annual trip to Landisville for the Blank Knight Invitational on April 13th and came home with 16 podium performances. Two of those involved gold medals with the highlight being the Lady Bears' 3200m relay team of Madeline Quinn, Cat Shontz, Sierra Kapcsos and Katie Locker. The quartet's 9:24.29 not only broke Hershey's year-old meet record by 10 seconds, they also shattered the school record of 9:47.4 that was set back in 1996 by Kim Goodson, Wossie Mazengia, Carrie Booth and Jamie Getz. Additionally the time checked in as the second fastest girls 3200m relay in Pennsylvania during the outdoor season and helped the girls secure an invite to the upcoming Penn Relays.
"The plan in going to the invitational was to post a time under 9:25 to get a solid entry for the Penn Relays," said head coach Derrick McDonald. "We realized on Saturday morning that doing so would also put the girls in the Pa #2 spot and break the previous school record of 23 years by 22 seconds."
Also grabbing a gold was Locker for her solo work in the 800m where her time of 2:16.53 was just a half-second off another meet record. Locker also secured one of two silver medals for Elizabethtown, taking second in the 1600m with a time of 5:12.78. Shontz nabbed the other silver, clocking an 11:17.05 in the 3200m with Quinn crossing just over five seconds later, snagging bronze in the process.
The Bears picked up some hardware in the hurdle events with Alicia Underkoffler finishing sixth in the 300H with a time of 49.72 while Derek Heisey captured fifth on the boy's side with a time of 41.40. Heisey was able to secure seventh place in the 110H with Underkoffler taking the final podium spot on the girl's side with a time of 17.27. Heisey made two more trips to the medal stand, placing eighth in the high jump with a 5-8. He also teamed up with Aiden Weaver, Aiden Hellein and Riley Drager to claim eighth in the 1600m relay. Hellein added a solo eighth place finish, turning in a 52.62 in the 400m while Frank Miele picked up the final medal for the boys with a toss of 46-1.75 in the shotput that landed him in sixth place.
In the field, Megan Rider and Carly Sedun both finished eighth in their events with Rider clearing 4-10 in the high jump while Sedun recorded a 97-2 in the discus. Anson snagged a seventh-place medal in the javelin with a 103-9.
GIRLS' LACROSSE
The girls' lacrosse team enjoyed a small winning streak with a 21-10 win over Cedar Crest on April 12th. The two-game run helped move the Lady Bears up the L-L standings but their movement was short lived as losses to Central Dauphin and Cocalico followed to put E-town at 4-7 overall and 2-5 in league play.
Cyrose Conteh accounted for 11 of the 21 goals against Cedar Crest, finishing what head coach Cheyenne Benson called "a huge confidence booster for my group" with 100 career goals. Kate Weissend added five scores while Marena Lonardi added an assist to her hat trick. Jaide Epler and Brooke Horst finished the scoring with one goal each. Corrie Baker earned the win with nine saves.
Central Dauphin handed the Lady Bears a 15-11 loss on the 15th. Baker finished with five saves, the same number of goals that Weissend picked up in the loss. Conteh added four goals while Epler and Morgan Miller tacked on one apiece. Elizabethtown hosted Cocalico on April 16th and the Lady Eagles left town with a 14-3 victory. Conteh scored all three Lady Bear goals while Baker finished with seven saves.
TENNIS
The boy's tennis team added two more wins to their season tally knocking off Lebanon and Donegal to improve to 11-1. Their 5-1 Section Two mark puts them in a first-place tie with Cocalico, the team that handed the Bears their lone loss.
The Bears took care of Lebanon on April 12th, shutting the Cedars out 7-0. Ethan Lown, Nacho Bartolome and Trent McBride all posted 6-0, 6-0 wins while Evan Schneider finished up the singles sweep with an 8-1 win.
Chris and Jon Gartley enjoyed the same success in their number one doubles win, taking out Cameron Maya and Cody Zang by an 8-0 final. The Brecken Musser/Tyler Bixler team as well as the duo of Scott Bucher and Jimmy Overmoyer had a bit more trouble securing their wins but Musser/Bixler came away with an 8-5 win while Bucher/Overmoyer claimed an 8-6 victory.
April 16th sent the Bears to Mt. Joy where they posted a 5-0 win over Donegal. Lown and McBride posted the only straight set wins with Lown claiming the number one singles with a 6-4, 6-2 final. McBride got by Nathan McNece with matching 6-2 finals. In between, Bartolome needed a tiebreaker to get by Evan Stehman, 7-5, 7-6(9-7) to finish singles action. Jon and Chris Gartley also needed a tiebreak to get rid of Luke Yuninger and Noah Hoffmaster, pulling out the 6-2, 7-6(7-2) win. Schneider and Overmoyer needed three sets and a tiebreak to claim the final win.
BOYS' LACROSSE
The boy's lacrosse team finds themselves in the middle of a rough patch with a losing streak that has reached six games with to losses to Cedar Crest, Central Dauphin and Manheim Township. Nineteen Duncan Keller saves were not enough to help the Bears leave Lebanon with a win as E-town fell to the Falcons 10-5. Sam Azzalina had two of those five goals while Chad Heisey, Alex Hartman and Cam Poulos accounted for one each.
April 15th brought Central Dauphin to town and the Rams left with a 6-3 victory. Keller kept things close with 22 saves but goals by Azzalina, Matt Pottgeiser and Jacob Wivell were not enough to overcome the Rams.
Elizabethtown took a trip to Neffsville on the 16th where the defending PIAA-3A champions handed E-town a 16-3 loss. Sawyer Smith tallied two of the three goals with Azzalina tacking on the final score. Keller turned away 23 shots in the loss.
SOFTBALL
The Lady Bear softball team did their best to keep pace with first place Lampeter-Strasburg posting wins over Hempfield and Cedar Crest and doubling their win streak, hitting four straight, to improve to 8-3 overall and 7-2 in L-L action.
E-town used a three-run burst in the fifth to slip by Hempfield 4-1 on April 12th. Kristin Geesey tossed seven strong innings, allowing just the single Lady Black Knight run on four hits and no walks, adding four strikeouts to her day. She also helped her cause with run producing singles in both the fourth and fifth innings. Hayden Calaman and Alyssa Hamilton added RBI singles in the fifth to push across the final two runs.
Elizabethtown kicked off the new week with a 16-3 win over Cedar Crest on the 15th. Geesey was hit for all three Lady Falcon runs in the third but the Lady Bears had already built a 5-0 lead by that point. Geesey issued no walks over seven innings in the circle but did ring up 10 strikeouts.
BASEBALL
The baseball team had the same Hempfield/Cedar Crest double but the Bears took the loss in both games to slip to 3-7 on the year. Cole Patrick absorbed the brunt of the 12-4 loss to Hempfield on the 12th, surrendering seven runs on four hits and two walks. A slew of E-town errors meant only three runs were earned but Patrick still took the loss for his one and two-third innings. Zach Malone picked up the next three and one-third innings and saw three more Hempfield runs cross on his watch. The junior picked up two strikeouts and two walks during that time. Josh Kreider finished by covering the final inning and two Black Knight runs.
Kyle Welch enjoyed a one hit, two RBI day at the plate while Matt Ramsey posted a two-hit game with a third inning single putting E-town on the board. Nick Kreider picked up the final RBI when he reached base on a fourth inning Hempfield error.
A visit from Cedar Crest on April 15th played out in similar fashion with the Bears falling 10-2. This time it was Nick Kreider on the hook for the loss with Malone and Jake Black finishing things up. The Falcons forced Kreider from the game after just three innings and six runs with Malone (four earned runs) unable to slow the Crest attack. Blank covered the final three innings and kept Cedar Crest stuck on 10 runs. The trio combined for nine strikeouts and six walks.
The Bears picked up both runs on Falcon miscues, a wild pitch in the second and an error in the third. Welch, Kreider, Cole Livingston, Hunter Murray, Jace Bock and Westin Kolaric picked up one hit each to account for the offense.
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