PLAINS TWP. — Wilkes-Barre Area didn’t waste much time disposing of West Scranton in a District 2 Class 3A boys volleyball quarterfinal match Thursday.
Behind the hitting of Matthew Clark, a milestone performance from setter Tijan “TJ” Njai and some timely defense from Manhammudl Latifou, the Wolfpack swept the Invaders 3-0. Scores were 25-12, 25-16, 25-8.
Now comes a much more difficult task for the Wolfpack — getting past Abington Heights in the semifinals on Tuesday. Abington Heights defeated WBA 3-1 in a semifinal last year and 3-2 on May 5.
“That was a tough game, a five-set game,” WBA coach Huy Nguyen said. “They are always a tough team. They’re well coached. I think the deciding factor is how consistent we’re going to be. That’s been it all year long, staying consistent.”
Clark, a sophomore, was certainly consistent on Thursday. He finished with 17 kills, including two spikes from the back row. He varied his attack, sometimes going for a powerful hit with his left hand and at others using dinks around West Scranton block attempts.
“It depends on the play,” Clark said of his hitting strategy. “If there is someone in front of me, I just got to read the block. Just making good decisions.”
Njai reached 1,000 career assists in the second set when he aided Latifou with a kill for a 9-5 lead.
“His ninth grade year, he was a bench player. Well, not even,” Nguyen said. “He was JV getting a lot of playing time. He put in a lot of work in the off-season. Credit to him, he put in a lot of work and the results show. Getting 1,000 assists is no easy feat, especially doing it your junior year.”
Latifou also made some impressive defensive saves from the back row. The Wolfpack also received solid blocking and hitting from Denzel Herrera and Yulijah Sillah as they steered the match throughout. WBA trailed just once, 1-0 to start the second set on an errant serve.
WBA’s dominance in the third set came in part from the serving of Brian Fowler, who served 11 consecutive points as the Wolfpack took an 18-3 lead.
The semifinals are Tuesday at Hazleton Area. Third seed WBA (9-5) will play second seed Abington Heights (12-5) at 5 p.m. Top-seeded Hazleton Area (15-2) will face fourth-seeded Delaware Valley (9-7) 30 minutes after the first semifinal.
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