Lower Dauphin sweeps Exeter Twp in District 3 2A championship to claim third consecutive title

HUMMELSTOWN — Winning back-to-back championships in a sport is no easy task at all.

In order to do so, each member of a team — from the managers to the coaches and players — must be on one accord with the same vision. There’s no way around it, everyone has to buy in.

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And if you need an example of how that looks, well, Lower Dauphin’s 3-0 win — 28-26, 25-17, 25-20 — against an undefeated Exeter Township on Thursday during the District 3 2A boys volleyball final was a clear-cut model of how a championship winning dynasty looks.

Because the Falcons (19-0) were already back-to-back champs, but they just turned things up a notch and shocked the world with a three-peat, which even came as a surprise to some members of the crew.

“It’s unbelievable,” head coach Dave Machamer ecstatically told PennLive.

“They stick together through thick and thin. This has very little to do with me. Those kids want it more than a coach. And as long as the kids want it more than the coach, they’re going to play their hearts out for each other and continue to work. We have absolutely been impressed with what those guys have done. At practice every day they work hard and they want to get better. They’re not afraid to tell each other, ‘Look, you got to get better at what you’re doing,’ and you can see that out on the floor.”

Exeter Township fell to 18-1 in the loss.

THE STARS

Will Sierer is the heart and soul of this Falcons team. The talented senior has been praised as the best setter in the state of Pennsylvania by his coaches and teammates time and time again because he’s vocal, leads by example, and dominates when he’s on the floor, which he did on Thursday with his 22 assists, four kills, two aces and a dig.

Toby Waters is another key contributor and senior veteran who along with Sierer, has played a big role in LD’s previous two consecutive district championships. He tallied nine kills and two aces against Exeter Township.

Arun Gopinath has been having himself quite the breakout year. He didn’t see much playing time across the past two seasons, but this year as a junior, he’s made his mark on this LD team. Gopinath led the front lines with 11 kills and an ace.

Hardworking Henry Smullen and Kyler Holland had 11 kills combined — Smullen tallied six while Holland contributed five — and Holland managed to snag an additional three digs. Digby Althoff also made an impact with three kills for the Falcons in the district title win.

Exeter Township was led by versatile Chase Nugent who had a team-high of nine kills. Gaige Gabriel was next in line with seven and also recorded five pivotal aces in the loss.

GAME-DECIDING MOMENTS

Though the Falcons got the sweep, the contest was no easy walk in the park. Waters and Sierer connected a few times to create some distance early on in the first set and help the Falcons jump out to a 9-4 lead, but Exeter Township didn’t back down easily.

Gabriel and Nugent kept hope alive for the Eagles as they hammered the net with powerful spikes, which caused Set 1 to go beyond 25 points.

But in the end, Sierer found himself in the right spots at the right time, setting up Smullen for a score, and then an ace from Gopinath iced the 28-26 win in the following play.

Lower Dauphin took an eight point victory in the second where it went on multiple runs, its largest being a 6-0 run to take an 18-15 lead after trailing a bit early on.

Then, the Falcons put their heads down and really came together at the beginning of their final set in the championship win, taking an early 4-0 run and continuing to pound away at the net relentlessly until the end, which exhausted the Eagles’ defense.

THEY SAID IT:

‘It feels great,’ Sierer told PennLive with a smile. “I can’t lie, at the beginning of the season, I wasn’t so sure, but the more games we played, the closer we got, and the better chemistry we have is incredible to watch. It’s incredible playing with these guys and I’m just so happy right now. This is truly unbelievable.”

“Coach Machamer started a dynasty,” Waters said. “It’s great because the last two years, I was just a sophomore and a junior. But now, I feel like a captain of the team and it feels so much better knowing that, we can do it together, me and Will [Sierer]. This isn’t ending this year.”

“I told you before, this group of kids, we knew were special,” Machamer said, “but you don’t know how special it is until you hang around them. The other night I told you they were a close-knit group. What I didn’t tell you is that all weekend those seniors all went together up to camp, they had a great time, fished and had a blast. They came back refreshed and they just work for each other.”

— Follow Nebiy Esayas on Twitter @_nebiy_

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