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Buffalo Bisons send SWB RailRiders to third straight loss

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COVINGTON TWP. &#8212; Tyler Klienbach amped up his energy with each swing. Adam McCue always found the most timely moment to make his presence felt.What the two Wyoming Valley West junior hitters did was gain a little measure of revenge on North Pocono, and really create an interesting final two weeks in the District 2 Class 2A playoff race.The two attackers combined for 16 kills as Valley West swept the Trojans, 3-0, Monday night in Lackawanna County. WVW avenged an early-season loss to North Pocono at the Spartan Classic.Set scores were 25-22, 25-22 and 25-14.&#8220;It was nice to get back on track because we had two big losses last week,&#8221; Klienbach said. &#8220;Plus, it was good to get some revenge because of losing at the Spartan Classic. We had some intensity, and there was some fire on our side. We kept our heads. We just played our game, and kept pushing.&#8221;Yes, Valley West is a 3A school and pretty much has its playoff destiny fulfilled. It will qualify for the postseason, and most likely head south to face off with one of the big boys in District 11.Yet the Spartans just muddied up the waters in the 2A race. With Monday&#8217;s setback, North Pocono now has five losses with a tough matchup with Nanticoke Area looming on Wednesday.And it&#8217;s not out of the realm of possibilities that five other teams &#8211; Western Wayne, Blue Ridge, Berwick, Dallas and Crestwood &#8211; could each end with five losses as well.Six possible teams fighting for three playoff spots.But not for Valley West head coach Joe Czopek. He knows his road pretty well.&#8220;We are definitely going to be making a trip down south,&#8221; the WVW head coach said. &#8220;We haven&#8217;t won a set in a week. That&#8217;s not a match. That&#8217;s a set. It was big for us because we have a friendly rivalry with North Pocono. Both teams wanted it just as bad.&#8221;It wasn&#8217;t easy at all.Valley West jumped out to a 16-10 lead to open the first set behind a combined five kills from McCue and Klienbach. But Pocono broke out a 6-0 run on Justin Morman&#8217;s serve and got a huge cross-court spike from junior James Ildefonso to knot it at 21-21.Enter Klienbach, who recorded spikes on two of the three final points as the Spartans held on 25-22.WVW (8-3) trailed for a good majority of the second set, down by as much as five early, before the Spartans used strong serves from Sam Nogin and Klienbach to string together a 12-5 run for the 23-20 lead. Pocono cut it to 23-22 on back-to-back kills from Ildefonso and Vince Wojnar before McCue&#8217;s strong spike down the line ended the set.&#8220;Once the ball hits the floor, you just have to move on and prepare for the next point,&#8221; Czopek said. &#8220;I think the guys finally started to believe that tonight. We had a better game plan for this match, and I thought that we spread the ball around well. I think we opened it up.&#8221;The third wasn&#8217;t close, dominated by Valley West &#8211; who scored 19 of the match&#8217;s final 27 points.&#8220;I felt great. It was just one of those games for me that I felt pretty confident,&#8221; McCue said. &#8220;It was just confident the whole game. Everything felt pretty good.&#8221;Nanticoke 3, Tunkhannock 0The Trojans duo of Ed Lukowski (31 assists, two kills, one ace and one block) and Brent Piontkowski (21 kills, two aces and blocks) led Nanticoke to a 25-20, 25-18, 25-17 sweep of Tunkhannock.Justin Casey had nine kills, two blocks and one assist in the win.Tunkhannock&#8217;s Elliot Hammersley finished with 14 assists, two digs and one block, while Daulton Cavanaugh had two blocks and two kills and Avery Billings recorded five kills, one block and one dig.Wyoming Valley West 3, North Pocono 0WVW `25`25`25 &#8211; 3N. Pocono `22`22`14 &#8211; 0WVW Leaders: Tyler Klienbach 8 kills; Adam McCue 8 kills, 4 aces; Nick Klimchok 22 assists, 3 kills.NP Leaders: James Ildefonso 12 kills; Luke Verdetto 5 kills; Justin Morman 20 assists.<style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Tom FoxFor Times Leader</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Times Leader sports at 570-829-7143 or on Twitter @tlsports.</shirttailMeta></div>

H.S. Boys Volleyball: Wyoming Valley West gains a little revenge on North Pocono