Jaylen Thomas

CHAMBERSBURG — A stark difference in experience was on display Thursday night at CASHS Field House.

Of the nine Chambersburg boys volleyball players who saw action in a Mid Penn Commonwealth match against Central Dauphin, seven were seniors. Of CD’s 10 players, only three were seniors and frequently, the Rams had two sophomores and two freshmen on the court.

That makes Chambersburg’s 3-0 victory not so surprising.

The Trojans (8-4, 6-3 MPC) won games of 25-14, 25-22 and 25-15.

“We served well and they had some trouble with their passing,” Chambersburg coach Marta Helfrick said. “Trey (Stepler, 16 points, 5 aces) and Colton (Wright, 13 points) served really well.

“For the most part, we played at our level, although sometimes we weren’t as aggressive as we need to be. When that happened we made some errors we weren’t making otherwise.”

The Trojans jumped out to leads of 4-0, 3-0 and 7-0, making Central Dauphin (5-4, 4-4 MPC) play from behind all night. The Rams never held a lead, and were tied only four times — all in Game 2.

“We’re just really, really young, and made a lot of mistakes,” CD coach Josh Brenneman said.

The Rams opened the match with a service error and a muffed return, and William Simmers started strong in the middle as Chambersburg rolled to a 25-14 win in Game 1.

CD played much better in the second game, and kept it close until a Trojan run made it 22-15. But the Rams fought back within 22-20 with its longest run of the night, behind server Tyler McConnell.

In fact, Central Dauphin might have prevailed in that game, but it had seven service errors.

Helfrick said, “They did a good job keeping pressure on us, and we gave them more free balls. But they really helped us out with their serves.”

Chambersburg jumped ahead 7-0 in the final game, but CD got back to within 8-5. The Trojans then slowly pulled away as Wes Newman had a good run with four straight service points.

Jaylen Thomas scored on four of six kill attempts in the match, had three block kills and three blocks. Simmers totaled six kills, five block kills and three blocks. Also at the net, Josiah Picard had six kills and Steven Swain and Riley Laite had four each.

“Our middles — Jaylen and Will — both had a pretty good match,” Helfrick said.

Also for Chambersburg, Stepler led in assists with 18 and Spencer Rajtik added seven, Newman and Swain each had 10 digs, Newman had 13 points and Rajtik 10.

The win should move the Trojans into the top 10 in the District 3 power rankings and the top 14 qualify for the playoffs.