Online summer camp registration
May 29, 2009 by fsiegle · Leave a Comment
Online registration for this year’s Summer Camps is now available in our online store !
In the online store you will find in-depth descriptions for all the girls, boys, and youth camps.
We do require a physical signed copy of the registration form for each camp that players are enrolled in. This can be downloaded here and handed in at camp check-in.
St. Joes advances to north final
May 29, 2009 by fsiegle · Leave a Comment
By CARLO EDRA
St. Josephs def. Christian Brothers Academy: 2-1
St. Josephs of Metuchen overcomes tough game one loss to take the next two games by the scores of 27-29, 25-15, 25-19. Christian Brothers Academy saw itself fall behind in all three games but only being able to overcome the deficit in the first.
Game one was easily the best game I’ve seen played all season. St. Joes came out of the gate with a 4-0 run due to CBA’s serve receive playing a bit hesitant. In the initial run, CBA sent over two overpasses in which St. Joe’s middle blocker Matt Lajiness sent them back straight down with authority. Joes held a 7-2 lead because CBA was still getting accustomed to the intensity coming from their opponent. Once CBA senior middle blocker, Jon Rohan, re-entered the game the tide would change. CBA went on to an 9-3 run with Rohan being involved in 4 blocks to give them the 11-10 lead causing a St. Joes timeout. The two schools would exchange sideouts until the score was knotted at 20 all. During the exchange CBA outside hitter Neil Slattery and St. Joe’s outside hitter Bobby O’ Grady put on a show.
On the next play St. Joes was able to make two tremendous digs but was unable to take a decent swing at the ball. CBA setter, Corey Fallon, was forced to make the defensive play leaving the set to opposite Ryan Gelenitis. Since Slattery was on a tear, St. Joes cheated their middle to block him but Gelenitis decided to set middle, Rohan, who put the ball straight down causing the CBA bench and crowd to erupt. Score was now 21-20, CBA with the lead. The play didn’t make St. Joes play any different because they went on to score the next two points via hit in transition then a block by Lajiness and O’ Grady. A St. Joes service plus hitting error tied the game at 23. The score was tied at 27 until Slattery finished the game off for CBA. CBA made a great defensive play on a middle attack from St. Joes which Slattery was able to convert with a tough cross court shot. On the next play, they were given a free ball, where St. Joes was officially called for a net violation on their block, but Slattery put the ball away hard down the line nonetheless to take the first game.
Game two had St. Joes again come out with big leads early on. They held leads of 9-3, 12-6, and 15-8. The strong play of CBA opposite Ryan Gelenitis brought his team to within 13-16 but Joes was playing too confident to let another game slip away. Gelenitis was big behind the service line and on the net with dominant blocks and hitting efficiency. Joes then went on to host a block party securing a 25-15 victory finishing game two with a 9-2 run. The story of the game was CBA getting comfortable pulling out the first game while St. Joes turning it up a notch and forcing CBA to make hitting errors with their intimidating block.
Again, St. Joes comes out with big leads in game three (8-1, 13-5, and even 15-6). CBA’s serve receive struggled BIG TIME causing them to take their middles and opposites out of the offense. Once Gelenitis hit the service line, CBA made another run. They got as close as 10-15 but couldn’t comeback the whole way. St. Joes worked off the efficiency of outside hitters O’ Grady and Dan Vaccariello. Vaccariello started the match off slow but got more efficient as the match wore on. St. Joes put the match away on a stack with O’ Grady providing the final blow. St. Joes wins game three 25-19.
If I had to give an award it would be an “Icebag Award” to CBA opposite, Ryan Gelenitis.
Early in game one, a CBA defender shanked a St. Joe’s attack. Gelenitis attempted to put the ball back in play crashing into about the 4th row bleachers. He cut himself open in the elbow prompting two official timeouts.
Again in game one with the score tied at 26, he ran down another ball. This time a CBA fan moved off of his seat to avoid Gelenitis but instead was rammed by the aggressive opposite. In a show of class, regardless of how intense the game was (IT WAS REALLY INTENSE AT THIS POINT), Gelenitis made sure the fan he hit was fine before returning to the court.
In game two, he made another play where he kept a ball alive but knocked over 3 chairs on his own bench in order to do so.
Finally, towards the end of game three, he made an almost identical play to the first one mentioned and crashed into the bleachers once again.
If that doesn’t show heart and “playing each point like it was your last,” I don’t know what will.
Carlo Edra
New Jersey City University
Head Men’s Volleyball Coach
(908) 930-3076
East Brunswick advances to semis
May 27, 2009 by fsiegle · Leave a Comment
By Fred Siegle
EAST BRUNSWICK- East Brunswick had some “Uh oh” moments - moments that put their hopes for a state title in jeopardy - on Wednesday.
Cinnaminson had game point against the Bears twice in Game One. Then, in Game Two, senior setter Andy Balint briefly left the court with an ankle injury. But Balint returned a few points later and the Bears advanced to the NJSIAA South/Central semifinals with a 28-26, 25-21 victory.
Balint visited the trainer when he landed on a Cinnaminson player’s foot on a block attempt and East Brunswick ahead 21-13. He returned with the Bears’ lead at 22-17 and helped finish out the victory.
“When Andy got hurt, that scared the crap out of me,” senior libero Ryan Norland (12 digs) said.
“When the best setter in the state goes down - that definitely affects you,” said senior right side hitter Mike Kvidahl (13 kills). “But Peter’s (Lysiak) a good setter too, so it didn’t hurt us too much. He’d been setting a 6-2 with Andy most of the year anyway, so we’re all used to Pete’s sets.”
The game points in the first game were more of a concern for the Bears. On the first, 24-23, the Cinnaminson serve missed. ON the second, 25-24, Kvidahl registered a kill. East Brunswick gained the advantage on a kill by Rohan Patel (6 blocks), then won the game after two sideouts on a Cinnaminson error as setter Ryan Haddon’s dump attempt didn’t clear the net.
“It was a smart play, unfortunately, he didn’t get it over. I would trust him to do that on game point in any game of the season,” Cinnaminson coach Rob Spier said. “We had them where we wanted them in the first game, we played great. Unfortunately we didn’t do that in the second game.”
“We kept serving tough, we kept swinging, we didn’t let the fact that they had game points against us change how we were playing,” Kvidahl said.
“After our last match against St. Joes, we were down 19-15 in one game there and coach (Greg) Rutz took a timeout and we took a deep breath and were able to come back and win. We knew what we had to do when the pressure was on, we had confidence because of that. We just kept hitting.”
East Brunswick went ahead 6-1 in the second game and kept a solid edge throughout, even when Balint went out.
“They changed their lineup for the second game, and that confused me,” Spier said. “Before we figured it out, they were up 5-1 or 6-1, whatever it was.”
Greg Aydelotte had 8 kills, Haddon had 24 assists, and libero Mick Kostiuk contributed 12 digs for Cinnaminson. Colin Lynch added 6 kills and Matt Caggiano and Mark Tumas each had 5 for Cinnaminson.
“We have so many weapons in our attack,” Spier said. “I told our team they didn’t have to worry about who was on the other side of the net, we know what we have on our side. We had them where we wanted them in the first game, we were playing great. Unfortunately it didn’t end the way we wanted.”
East Brunswick visits Southern, which beat Howell on Wednesday, in the section semifinals on Friday.
Online Summer Camp Registration
May 26, 2009 by mthompson · Leave a Comment
Online registration for this year’s Summer Camps is now available in our online store !
In the online store you will find in-depth descriptions for all the girls, boys, and youth camps.
We do require a physical signed copy of the registration form for each camp that players are enrolled in. This can be downloaded here and handed in at camp check-in.
Spring Reverse Quads Standings
May 20, 2009 by mthatcher · Leave a Comment
Thursday Night Reverse Quads.
CONGRATULATIONS TO SMACKEY DODGE AND UGLYBALL!!!-
GOLD DIVISION
CHAMPION-Smackey Dodge 2 games to 1 Over Animaniacs in the Final.
- Smackey Dodge 12-2, 33-9
- WallLeePaulLo 10-4, 28-14
- Animaniacs 9-5, 27-15
- Los Guapos 7-7, 19-23
SILVER DIVISION
CHAMPION-UglyBall 2 games to 0 over Dirty Sets in the Final.
- Dirty Sets 6-8, 21-21
- 80% Blockage 6-8, 19-23
- UglyBall 6-8, 17-25
- BUCA 0-14, 4-38
Super Six/Top 10
May 10, 2009 by fsiegle · Leave a Comment
By Fred Siegle
Since it’s a day later, I thought I’d do a new top 10 along with some notes on the teams from the Super Six.
1. SOUTHERN (26-4). The Rams went 4-0 at the Super Six, winning all the matches in three games. There shouldn’t be any doubt they will be the top seed in the South/Central section (assuming they don’t lose to Cinnaminson on Tuesday - which isn’t out of the question. If it does happen, I have no idea how the seeding will go.
Setter Shaw Keller had some impressive stat lines in the Super Six wins (6 kills, 2 blocks, 40 assists against Don Bosco, 4 blocks, 5 digs, 22 assists against East Brunswick). “Last year, Shaw played middle and outside hitter, but this year we needed him to set,” coach Eric Maxwell said. “He really worked at it in the offseason.”
The Rams knew they could be top seed in the state tournament with a good showing on Saturday. “We just thought we had to come in here and take care of business,” outside hitter Nick Nichols said.
2. ST. JOSEPHS (30-8). The Falcons went 3-1 at the Super Six, losing only to Southern. That result and two regular-season wins over East Brunswick make them an obvious No. 2. Bobby O’Grady had 22 kills and 3 blocks against Don Bosco, and 30 more kills in the other three matches.
3. CBA (22-4). The Colts also went 3-1, with the loss against St. Josephs. Libero Matt Cocarro had 15 digs in the Colts’ victory over East Brunswick. “Matt played phenomenal,” setter Corey Fallon said. “He had some key digs against Big Mike (Kvidahl).”
Greg Brzozowski had 8 kills, Ryan Gelenitis added 7, and Jon Rohan had 6 kills against East Brunswick.
4. EAST BRUNSWICK (17-4). The Bears had their worst performance in the history of the Super Six, beating the two north teams (Don Bosco and St. Peters) but losing to the two South teams (Southern and CBA). Mike Kvidahl had 36 kills in the four matches.
5. DON BOSCO (20-6). The Ironmen still figure to be the top seed in North Jersey despite the rough day at the Super Six with four losses. James Mataras had 11 kills and 4 blocks against Southern and 6 kills against East Brunswick. Setter Doug Battersby had 4 kills, 3 blocks, 4 digs and 34 assists against St. Josephs.
6. BAYONNE (19-1). The Bees didn’t play in the Super Six but moved up in the rankings based on their win over St. Peters last week. They’re likely to be the two seed in the North Section.
7. CINNAMINSON (21-3). The Pirates have been the best Olympic Conference team all season, and had a key victory over St. Peters Prep at the Southern Invitational.
8. HILLSBOROUGH (15-3). The Raiders are one of the hot teams in the state, and have wins over some of the top competition: Old Bridge, Hunterdon Central, South Brunswick and West Windsor North.
9. SOUTH BRUNSWICK (13-6). The Vikings faltered a little with the loss to Hillsborough last week, but they still deserve a high ranking.
10. ST. PETERS PREP (21-9). The Marauders will have to turn things around after a rough week where they lost to Bayonne and then lost all four matches at the Super Six.
Teams to watch: Passaic Valley (County Champs!); Old Bridge (surged again on Saturday with 3 big wins at their quad); Vernon (still one of the north’s top teams despite the loss to Old Bridge); Howell (third best team in a very strong Shore Conference); Eastern and Cherry Hill West (battling for second-best in the Olympic Conference).
Passaic Valley wins county title
May 10, 2009 by fsiegle · Leave a Comment
By Fred Siegle
WAYNE - In his mind, Passiac Valley senior Pat Fierro was telling himself “Just get it in.”
But in reality, Fierro’s serve had a low trajectory over the net and angled toward Clifton’s back left-side corner. And when it landed untouched by Clifton players, well in bounds, Fierro had an ace for match point and PV had its first-ever volleyball title and fans covered in Green and Silver paint came storming out of the bleachers at Wayne Hills high school to celebrate on the court.
“In all honesty, I was really only trying to get it in,” Fierro, one of only three Hornets’ seniors, said. “I wasn’t thinking about getting an ace. I just wanted to get it over and let my teammates do the rest.”
Fierro’s previous serve had been similar to the game-winner, except a Clifton player had managed to get to it. But that resulted in an overpass that was pounded down by Alex Slinger to set up the final point as the Hornets won 12-25, 25-23, 25-18.
“All I was thinking was, “I hope no one sees me cry,”’ Fierro said.
The Hornets took a 12-11 lead on a Clifton error in the third game and never trailed again.
“Everyone was pumped up for every point,” said senior libero Jake Libucha, who had 10 digs and anchored the serve receive. “I wasn’t looking at the scoreboard, I was just going point by point. I never even looked until there was only 3 or 4 points to go.”
Passaic Valley actually closed out the game on a 10-4 run. With the score 15-14, Nick Hrehovcik registered a kill, one of 14 in the match, to make it 16-14, and Mike Libucha pounded down an overpass for a 3-point lead. Dennis Skettini answered with one of his 22 kills and Doug DiFalco had a block to get Clifton back to within one, but Fierro had a kill and then a block before Hrehovcik had a kill on a 10-ball for a 20-16 lead and the Hornets never looked back.
“We wanted to jump on them early and put pressure on them,” Hrehovcik said. “Once we got the lead, we just kept on rolling.”
After the terrible first game, Passaic Valley jumped out to a 11-4 lead in Game Two, but allowed Clifton to battle back and the Mustangs actually took a 20-18 lead on kill by setter Nick Lavender. But two Clifton errors followed, and a block by Slinger and sophomore setter Blake Krapels (22 assists) got the Hornets back in the lead. The game ended with two Clifton errors.
“We came in and we just weren’t as prepared as they were in the first game,” Hrehovcik said. “I think we were a little nervous. But we finally settled down.”
“Everyone was nervous,” Jake Libucha said. “We have a lot of young guys. But we knew we had the capacity to beat them. We just had to stop making mistakes.”
Hillsborough defeats South Brunswick
May 7, 2009 by fsiegle · Leave a Comment
By Fred Siegle
HILLSBOROUGH - Watch out for the Raiders.
Hillsborough won its seventh straight match on Thursday, beating South Brunswick 26-24, 25-21, and is making its case for a quality seed in the NJSIAA Tournament. The Raiders are now 14-3, with their last loss coming on April 22 against Hunterdon Central.
But they avenged that loss on Wednesday, then followed it up with the victory over the Vikings, who are ranked No. 7 in the last powerzonevb.com rankings (fred’s note: I know, I have to do a new ranking!). The Raiders also have quality wins this year over Fair Lawn, West Windsor-Plainsboro North, Old Bridge, and Colts Neck.
“We knew we’d need to win today if we want a good seed in the states,” said senior setter Jared Himelfarb. “We’ve played a pretty good schedule - our losses are to St. Joes, CBA (both ranked teams) and Hunterdon Central, which we beat yesterday (Wednesday).”
Junior middle Krys Pescinski had 8 kills and 4 blocks for the Raiders, while senior outside Justin Tien had 7 kills and an ace.
The Raiders trailed the first game 23-20, but a kills by Pescinski. Tien and sophomore middle Ed Jedziniak tied it at 23-23. Tien and Ed Jedziniak then combined for a block to make it 24-23, and after the teams traded two sideouts, the game ended on a South Brunswick error.
Hillsborough took a 20-16 lead in the second game when Pescinski ran a back slide for a kill, and finished out the game on a kill by Tien.
Senior Kieran Fitzpatrick, a 6-7 middle, had 7 kills and senior outside Kyle Mariano had 6 to lead South Brunswick.
“We’re definitely focusing more right now, and we’re playing more like a team,” Himelfarb said. “Our goal today was to try to stop Kyle as much as possible, and try to get around Kieran by moving the ball around with slides.”
Bayonne defeats St. Peters
May 5, 2009 by fsiegle · Leave a Comment
By Fred Siegle
BAYONNE - Ever since they lost at St. Peter’s Prep on April 16, players on Bayonne’s volleyball team have had their focus on May 5 and a home meeting with the Marauders.
The Bees’ wait ended on Tuesday, and it ended with smiles on their faces as they beat St. Peters 25-20, 25-15.
“When we played them the first time, we had a bad day,” said middle blocker Patryk Rusznica, who had 7 kills and 5 blocks. “This time, it was their bad day. They played like six individuals, we played like a unit.”
Bayonne went ahead 9-8 in the first game on a St. Peter’s error, then Rusznica pounded down an overpass after a tough serve by Casey Blake to make it 10-8, and the Bees never relinquished the lead. Four serves by Blake later, Rusznica registered a solo block to make it 14-8.
With Bayonne leading 22-11, St. Peter’s mounted a minor comeback attempt with setter Mike Blicharz serving. John Armstrong had two kills and combined with Parker Kolodka for two blocks as the Marauders closed the gap to 22-17, but the teams traded points from there for the final score.
In the second game, the Bees went ahead 7-6 on a kill by Mike Kucza (5 kills, 1 block), then Rusznica and Rich Boyle combined for a block to make it 8-6 and they never trailed.
“The difference today was our confidence, plus we didn’t give up (which he thought his team did in the first meeting),” Kucza said. “The first time, I think the crowd got to us. But we learned from our mistakes. ”
“We were hungry,” coach Pat Longo said. “I think we were more focused today, too. It was also important that we kept the momentum when we got ahead.”
Blake had 4 kills for Bayonne, while setter Kester Payumo contributed 9 assists, Boyle had 4 kills and 3 blocks, and Marcin Chojnowski chipped in with a kill and 3 blocks.
Armstrong had 3 kills and 2 blocks for St. Peters, while Kolodka had 6 kills. Kenny Walters contributed 3 kills and 2 aces, and Dan Londono had an ace and 4 kills.
East Brunswick wins Southern Invitational
May 2, 2009 by fsiegle · Leave a Comment
By Fred Siegle
MANAHAWKIN - There were a couple miss-steps along the way, but East Brunswick rebounded from last Wednesday’s loss to St. Josephs on Saturday by winning the Southern Invitational.
Senior left side hitter Mike Kvidahl led the way in the final with 18 kills as the Bears beat the hosts 25-22, 25-18. The Bears had one of their miss-steps in the semifinals, losing the first game, 25-23, to Colts Neck, but came back to win Games 2 (25-17) and Game 3 (25-22). They also won their pool in the pool-play portion of the tournament, going 5-1, with a split of two games against Cinnaminson.
“From the moment we lost to St. Joes, we’ve had a chip on our shoulder,” Kvidahl said. “We came in here with that attitude. We weren’t even thinking about the other teams here, really, we wanted to prove to ourselves that we’re one of the best teams in the state.”
Setter Andy Balint had 6 kills and a block in the final for East Brunswick, while middle Rohan Patel had 2 kills and participated in 3 blocks. Kvidahl was named to the All-Tournament team, and Patel, who led the way with his blocking in the match against Colts Neck, was named tournament MVP. Ryan Norland, who played outside hitter and libero for the Bears during the tournament, also was named to the All Tournament team.
“We were a little bit angry after the loss to St. Joes,” Patel said. “We know we can play better than that. ”
Patel said the turning point in the second game against the Rams came when Southern’s hitters reacted to East Brunswick’s blocking.
“They kind of stopped attacking and started hitting roll shots and pushing the ball,” Patel said. “That increased our confidence.”
The comeback against Colts Neck showed the Bears are working to overcome the types of letdowns that caused their two losses to St. Joes this year, Kvidahl said.
“It was like we were just going through the motions,” he said. “But after that game, we woke up and played strong throughout the playoffs.”
Southern was led by senior outside hitter Nick Nichols, who had 8 kills and 2 aces against East Brunswick, while Rob Kraft added 5 kills.
Southern beat Cinnaminson, 25-23, 25-19 in the semifinals, as Nichols had 8 kills, Kraft had 6 kills and 3 blocks, and middle Austin Geary had 7 kills and 7 blocks. Mark Tumas had 8 kills for Cinnaminson, while Greg Aydelotte had 4 kills and 2 blocks and Dan Christmas had 6 blocks.
“Beating Cinnaminson was nice, that was an important win,” said Southern coach Eric Maxwell. “It helps us maintain our spot as far as being one of the top teams. Against East Brunswick, we just didn’t put enough pressure on them - they were always playing from 3-4 points in front of us. We need to get a better start.”
Cinnaminson split with East Brunswick in pool play, winning 25-23 and losing 25-22. The Bears came out as the top seed from the pool based on points against the other teams (Colts Neck and Roselle Catholic). The Pirates beat St. Peters Prep 22-25, 25-23, 25-18 in the quarterfinals.
“We’re very happy to be able to play in this kind of tournament, to face this kind of competition,” coach Rob Spier said. “This past week, we played four teams with losing records. We know we have to play top teams, to see teams like this, before the state tournament. We don’t want it to be a surprise for us.”
The Pirates had a tough time putting up a block against St. Peter’s fast offense, especially one-balls in the middle, but their defense made up for it with numerous digs, often off hits with no block up.
“We had trouble against St. Peters, their middles are so fast,” Spier said. “At first, we were really trying to shut that down with blocking. But it wasn’t working, so we switched it up and decided to give that to them and work on digging it up and then running our offense off that.”
Cinnaminson’s defense also confounded East Brunswick in their pool play match. “Their defense was amazing,” Patel said. “They were getting everything.”
Colts Neck finished third in the pool that featured Cinnaminson and East Brunswick, beating Roselle Catholic. The Cougars then beat Cherry Hill West, the second-place team from the other pool, in the quarterfinals.Alister Matthews had 23 kills in the 3-game loss to East Brunswick.
“I really believe after today that we’ve shown we can compete with any team in the state,” Colts Neck coach Glen Jansen said. “We have nine seniors on this team, and they’ve done everything I could ask.”
St. Peters had been third in the pool won by Southern, with Cherry Hill West taking second. Howell, which beat St. Peters in pool play, just missed the playoffs in that tough pool.
Nichols, setter Shaw Keller and middle Austin Geary represented Southern on the all-tournament team, which also included Tumas from Cinnaminson and Alister Matthews of Colts Neck.