NANTICOKE — A couple of blocks from Koirey Tang and a kill from Jack McCue.
That — along with an incredible amount of resiliency — took Holy Redeemer from the brink of defeat to a second consecutive Wyoming Valley Conference boys volleyball championship.
The Royals rallied from losses in the first two sets to take the next three on May 13 to defeat Crestwood 3-2 at Nanticoke Area High School.
Crestwood won the opener 25-19 and followed with a 25-17 victory. The Comets never trailed in the first set and took the lead for good, 6-5, on an ace by JJ Stec in the second.
“We’ve been down 2-0 before. We knew we could come back,” McCue said. “We’ve been through a lot. It’s a big mental battle, but once you get over that we excel.”
Redeemer came back with a 25-16 win in the third, where the Royals ran off eight consecutive points to snap an 8-8 tie and seize control. They then led wire-to-wire in the fourth set for a 25-21 win.
Redeemer won the final set 16-14, where Crestwood took its first lead since the third set, lost it, recovered to within a point of winning the match and then lost it again.
Trailing 14-12, Tang’s first block was followed by McCue’s kill for a 14-14 tie. A third hit by Crestwood was wide to give the Royals a 15-14 lead. Tang then recorded a match-ending block to give Redeemer consecutive conference championships for the first time since 2017 and 2018.
“I knew what I was going to do,” Tang said. “I knew they were going to give it to JJ there. I knew to just stay on him and do our job.”
Both teams finished 10-1 in the WVC regular season, with Redeemer handing Crestwood its only loss a week earlier, 3-2. That match lasted about two hours, and Tuesday’s did as well.
The title match looked like it would clock in at well less than two hours.
Behind Stec, the Comets took a 10-3 lead in the first set. Redeemer closed within 14-12, but a couple of errors, along with four consecutive service points by Zachary Koons that included a pair of kills by Eric Rinehimer, allowed Crestwood to regain control.
Redeemer led early in the second set, but Crestwood flipped the script via the net play of Stec, Larry Little and Ben Reilly. Little ended the game by dropping an uncontested serve just inside the backline.
The game had no bearing on the District 2 Class 2A power rankings, which determine seedings. Crestwood was the top seed and opened with a win against Dallas at home.
The District 2 Class 2A championship game is at 5 p.m. on Thursday, and could be a rematch of the WVC Championship game. At the time this article was written for Mountain Peaks, both Crestwood and Holy Redeemer were preparing for semifinal matches on Tuesday.
