River Dell wins rematch with Ramapo to return to state finals by Greg Tartaglia of The Record
ORADELL – Emma Plutnicki saw the outcome she wanted in her mind. Then she saw the entire River Dell girls volleyball team surround her in celebration.
The junior middle/setter blocked a spike for the match point that lifted the No. 2 seed Golden Hawks past No. 3 Ramapo, 25-17, 28-26, in the Group 2 state semifinals on Wednesday.
River Dell (22-1) advanced to the group final for the fourth straight season and will face No. 1 NV/Demarest Saturday at noon at the William Paterson University Rec Center. Ramapo, which eliminated the Golden Hawks in the 2016 state final, finished 17-3.
“We knew going into it that Ramapo was going to be a tough team to beat, and on those last points, I was just trying to do whatever I could to end it,” Plutnicki said. “Especially in the second set, it was back and forth, point for point.”
From the time that the Green Raiders pulled even in game two, 15-15, there were nine more ties down the stretch. Senior co-captain Samantha Grandich had kills to give River Dell leads of 25-24 and 26-25, but Ramapo responded each time.
Trailing, 27-26, the visitors made one last bid to draw even when top hitter Elena Montgomery launched a shot out of the back row.
“I saw the set go to Elena, and I envisioned [the block] in my head and just went for it,” said Plutnicki, who also served an ace for the winning point in game one. “Defense was our main priority, because we knew how good their offense is.”
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Montgomery and fellow OH Gretchen Kincade fueled the Ramapo attack with a combined 22 kills. River Dell got 13 kills from Grandich and five from middle Makayla Serrett, and Grandich led a back-row defense that caused chaos for the visitors.
“She was as good in the back row as she was in the front row,” Green Raiders coach Van Hook said of Grandich. “She was lights-out awesome.”
The work of libero Sofia Poznansky and DS Shannon McKinless also help offset the loss of senior co-captain Jenna Karpowich to illness.
The outcome of last season’s clash seemed somewhat secondary as the Golden Hawks flocked around the Section B trophy (rather than using geographic divisions in volleyball, the NJSIAA awards sectional titles to the two state finalists).
Still, the satisfaction of defeating a postseason nemesis was evident.
“You always have it in the back of your mind that they beat you,” Grandich said, “but you just want to come back and do your best.”
“At the start of this year, I didn’t even know how far we were going to make it, but I wanted to try and stay home for this [state semifinal] if we got there,” River Dell coach Dianne Furusawa said. “Going away to Demarest, Pascack Hills or Ramapo [the other Group 2 semifinalists], that makes it a little bit harder. So, that part worked out well.”
No. 1 NV/DEMAREST 25-25, No. 4 PASCACK HILLS 20-15 (at Demarest): The Norsewomen (23-1) got a 20-assist, 18-dig performance from setter Alicia Iafrate, plus eight kills apiece from outside hitters Ellen Hamlin and Sedona Gaard, to reach their sixth state final in seven seasons.