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By Sam Butler, April 16, 2008

Last updated: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 3:28 PM EDT

As the final whistle blew Carlisle’s Justin Beachy’s hands rocketed skyward as he let out a guttural roar.

It was all you needed to see to know the Thundering Herd put together its best performance of the season against the undefeated, Commonwealth Division leading, and arch rival Cumberland Valley Eagles.

Beachy finished the match with 50 digs.

“We just played really well as a team,” said Herd setter Ed Benish (30 assists, 4 kills and 2 blocks). “We limited the errors, we definitely blocked and our defense was pretty sick (Tuesday). We’ve been underrated all season. We know that we’re better then that, we wanted to come out strong and show people we’re for real.”

Carlisle head coach Mike Beachy said Tuesday marked a monumental moment in the volleyball program’s history. It validated his squads 6-1 record coming in. It was also a testimate to the Herd’s attention to detail.

“This is a big win for our program,” said Mike Beachy. “To play with a team that’s that awesome, an undefeated team ranked sixth in the state and to play well against them speaks well of our players. The guys learned a lot about themselves playing that match (Tuesday).”

With the 3-1 (25-18, 26-28, 27-25 and 25-15) win Carisle (4-1 Commonwealth; 7-1 overall) shares the Commonwealth Division lead with CV (4-1 Commonwealth; 7-1 overall).

“I was quoted as saying we played our A game against Cedar Cliff,” said Cumberland Valley head coach Scott Reynolds. “Well (Tuesday) Carlisle played theirs. We said we played our A game, and needed to see what we follow that up with. We probable played our C minus or D game.”

In a match where points are awarded for almost every mistake, Tuesday came down to which team made the fewest amount.

“We work real hard in practice on the little stuff, the fundamentals that really don’t get noticed,” said Mike Beachy. “We work on a lot of the little stuff that scores points for the other team if you don’t do them well. It’s a tribute to the guys hard work.”

In all four games, CV gave away more points because of errors. The Eagles committed 20 service errors to Carlisle’s eight. Hitting errors were 17 to 20 in favor of the Herd. Carlisle also made fewer blocking and defensive errors.

Another big reason for the Herd’s victory was blocking.

Carlisle’s middle hitter Kyle Adams was like a tree at the net. Dan Hoy and Eric Love along with jumpers Nate Wysocki and Bennish and made for a formidable front.

“They shocked us a little with how well they blocked (Tuesday),” said Reynolds. “They blocked very well (Tuesday) and that wasn’t something we expected from them. So we underestimated their blocks.”

In the first seven matches Carlisle was not all that active at the net. In total Carlisle tallied 18 blocks, while the Eagles had only eight.

“We were able to slow down their offense,” said Beachy. “We played their hitters well and forced them to take contested shots. Rarely were they one-on-one. It helped us to get our defense set so we could get a good pass and go from there.”

Adams led the Carlisle attack with 12 kills, six blocks and 27 digs. Hoy and Love combined for nine kills, six digs and eight blocks. Wysocki and Dan Anderson together added eight kills, 18 digs, one block and one ace.

The Eagles were led by Ricky Pfisterer with 15 kills and 19 digs. Jeff Gring and Connor Jackson combined for 20 kills, 20 digs, and two aces. Justin stoner tallied five kills, three digs and four blocks. Drew Kalbach had 44 assists, three kills and five digs.