WARRINGTON – For the first time in a quarter decade, the North Penn boys volleyball team stands alone atop the District One scene.
After knocking off three higher-seeded opponents in consecutive rounds, the #9 seed Knights (18-6) finished their District run with a dominant sweep of #6 Neshaminy (16-6) in 3 sets on Tuesday night. Making it to the district chip guaranteed them a spot in states, but the win locked in the first ever home state volleyball game at North Penn.
The championship is the first one in program history since 2000, and the first time the Knights have appeared in states since 2019.
North Penn entered the tournament as the #9 seed and quickly started to turn heads with a gritty five set win over #8 Pennsbury and an incredible upset over the #1 seeded Wissahickon before beating #5 Spring-Ford to reach the title game.
“As we went into the tournament we put ourselves in a low position where we wanted to challenge higher seeds,” North Penn third year head coach Zheng Huang said. “Once we got a couple wins the team’s confidence started building and they started building momentum so that upsetting higher seeds was no longer a difficult task.”
“I feel like at the start of playoffs, we were coming from a place where we were the 9 seed, so we were expecting wins, but we weren’t expecting such dominant wins,” North Penn senior captain Luca Dalla Costa said. “Once we started winning, especially after defeating the 1st seeded, Wissahickon, we were just really fired up. It really felt like the team deserved that 1st place and it really felt like it was ours for the taking, so we just decided to take it.”
The first set was the tightest of the three, with Neshaminy taking a quick 6-2 lead. North Penn came right back with a 7-0 run highlighted by a spike and kill from Max Webb before the Skins called timeout.
Scoring continued back and forth until, with the score tied at 12 each, the Knights went on a 9-2 run. Neshaminy scored the next five points but North Penn ran away with it in the end as Neshaminy was called for touching the net to give the Knights a 25-22 win in set one.
North Penn stayed hot in the second set, jumping out to a 10-5 lead off a flurry of spikes from seniors Quinn Clarkson and Kyle Park, along with junior Daniel Arskiy. Neshaminy rallied with spikes from their own bigs in seniors Cadenn Amati and Nikoloz Mardaleishvili, bringing them within two, 15-13.
“What I found out is that if they’re in system, they’re very comfortable,” Huang said. “We try to force them to show their weaknesses.”
“We just kept feeding the outside, and they just got the job done,” Clarkson added.
Clarkson led the charge the rest of the way, and a Neshaminy timeout with the score 20-17 barely affected the Knights as they traded points until senior Logan Krider finished off the set with a monster spike. North Penn with a 25-21 victory in the second set was now one set away from history.
Smelling blood in the water, the Knights came out as strong as ever, taking a 6-2 lead off a Prithvi Patel ace before the Skins called an elusive double timeout. The entire Neshaminy team walked out of the gym and since they weren’t back within their first timeout, they were forced to use both. Unintentional or not, it was ineffective against the steamrolling Knights.
North Penn continued to score twice between every Nesh point, and went on a 10-6 run to close out the set, and match, as junior Aaron DeSantis served an ace to cement the 2026 Knights into North Penn history.
“It feels great, you know?” Clarkson said. “Our goal for the season was to get our year on the banner so we can look up to it, and now we can.”
“I feel like this is our way of giving back to the school, giving back to the community that really supported us throughout the times, the parents that have always been there,” Dalla Costa said. “Being part of North Penn history is not just winning a title, it’s also part of a legacy.”
North Penn will host the fourth seeded team from District 3 on June 2nd at home for the first round of the state tournament. That team will be decided on May 28, and it will be either reigning state champion Cumberland Valley, Hempfield, Dallastown or Central Dauphin.
Neshaminy will travel to play the winner of La Salle/Northeast in the same opening round.
The last District 1 team to make it to the state semifinals was Pennridge in 2016, and the last District 1 team to make it to the state final was Pennsbury in 2013. The most recent district 1 state champion was Souderton in 1998, and only two District 1 teams ever have won the state tournament in Souderton and Haverford (1966, ‘67, ‘68, ‘69, ‘70, and ‘71). North Penn looks to add to that list.
#9 NORTH PENN 3, #6 NESHAMINY 0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-19)
P. Patel (18 digs) K. Park (9 kills, 3 blocks) D. Arisky (11 kills, 1 block) A. DeSantis (5 blocks)
