Old Tappan wins thrilling TOC by Greg Tartaglia of The Record
WAYNE – Maya Illovsky never stopped believing that her NV/Old Tappan girls volleyball team could prevail.
And yet the look of disbelief on her face after Sunday’s State Tournament of Champions final seemed somewhat appropriate.
The top-seeded Golden Knights defended their TOC crown with a 17-25, 25-20, 29-27 victory over No. 2 Immaculate Heart at the William Paterson Rec Center. They rallied from a 22-19 deficit in the final set and staved off three IHA championship points.
Exactly how intense was the endgame?
“It felt like I couldn’t breathe,” Illovsky said, smiling nonetheless. “We all realized this is the last time we’re playing together, and everybody just [said], ‘Play right now, in the moment. This is it’.”
NV/Old Tappan finished 24-1 to bring its record over the past two seasons to 50-1. The Blue Eagles (38-5) have lost only twice in nine TOC title-match appearances, both times against the Golden Knights.
“[IHA] had some really good kills toward the end,” NV/Old Tappan’s Julia Passante said. “It was so close so many times, but our mentality every time we huddled up was, “We can do this.’ ”
Passante was one of several players who showed that Sunday was a good day to stay inside — not just weather-wise but on the court, where middle hitters thrived.
The 6-foot-3 junior led all individuals with 16 kills, including several on free balls. Immaculate Heart countered with the duo of junior Colette Petric and Anna Morris, who combined for 17 kills and seven blocks.
“When you have two teams with weapons out of the middle, it’s going to be a faster game,” Passante said. “And we responded really well to it.”
After outside hitter Catherine Fazio’s 14th kill gave IHA match point at 24-23, Passante rang a shot off the blocks to tie it. Petric had a block to put the Blue Eagles up, 26-25, then a kill to put them a point away at 27-26.
The final three points involved NV/Old Tappan middle Alex Trouilloud, who spiked a set from Becky Chu (30 assists), combined with opposite Corinne Issa for a block and sealed the win by knocking down a free ball near the net.
“People like Alex, Corinne and Camryn Monfried don’t get as many [sets] as Julia and Maya but do their jobs just as well,” Golden Knights coach Melissa Landeck said. “Everybody’s here to contribute, no matter what their roles are.”
Monfried supplied the winning kill in the second set and had seven digs playing exclusively in the front row. Trouilloud added four kills and three blocks, and Illovsky was as effective on defense (22 digs) as she was with her offense (14 kills).
Sophomore OH Sydney Taylor had 17 digs for IHA and got most of her seven kills early in the third set, when the Blue Eagles dictated play en route to a 12-9 lead. NV/Old Tappan had just two kills in that span but was able to prolong enough rallies that ended in its favor with great court coverage.
“We knew they were very strong defensively, and we wanted to keep attacking,” said IHA coach Maria Nolan, whose entire team is underclassmen.
“They’ll all be back,” Nolan said of her players, “and hopefully, we’ll give it a shot again here next year.”
NV/OLD TAPPAN 2, IMMACULATE HEART 1
Immaculate Heart 25 20 27
NV/Old Tappan 17 25 29
Kills: (IHA) Catherine Fazio 14; (OT) Julia Passante 16.
Assists: (IHA) Julia Morris 39; (OT) Becky Chu 30.
Digs: (IHA) Erica Timpanaro 25; (OT) Maya Illovsky 22.
Records: NV/Old Tappan 24-1, Immaculate Heart 38-5.