North Jersey dominates the day at state girls volleyball finals by Greg Tartaglia of The Record
WAYNE – Four of the five state girls volleyball finals at the William Paterson Rec Center on Saturday involved North Jersey teams. All five winners advanced to next weekend’s State Tournament of Champions, which will be held at the same location.
Here is a look back at how each of the group champions was crowned.
Group 2
River Dell had Faith, and she had her lucky goggles.
Senior Faith Herity served a 5-0 run in each set of the No. 2 seed Golden Hawks’ 25-14, 25-23 victory over No. 1 NV/Demarest, helping the Oradell school earn its third state championship in four years.
The first-set run built upon a 10-8 lead, and the second-set spree drew River Dell (23-1) even at 14-all.
“I was telling myself before I served, ‘This is what you’ve worked for these past four years, just go out there and do it’,” Herity said. “We’ve all got to work together, every little thing contributes.”
In her first year on varsity, Herity continues to wear the dark blue sport goggles (with skulls painted on the sides, no less) she acquired as a freshman.
“I’ve had these since I was 14,” she said. “I didn’t want to change them, because I figured they were kind of lucky.”
“A lot of these kids hadn’t been to the big [state] games,” River Dell coach Dianne Furusawa said. “And when [Herity] came into practice, she was serving like she wanted to prove something to me.”
While the Golden Hawks’ defense and court coverage was airtight as usual, serving was one of the little things that made a difference versus NV/Demarest (23-2).
Late in the second set, middle Makayla Serrett and libero Sofia Poznansky combined to serve five straight points that brought River Dell back from a 22-18 deficit.
Senior OH Samantha Grandich led all players with 10 kills and chipped in eight digs. Poznansky added 10 digs, and junior Emma Plutnicki registered 19 assists, five digs, two kills, and two blocks.
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“I didn’t think that we were going to be as good as we were last year,” said Grandich, who has been on varsity for each of the Golden Hawks’ last three state titles. “But everyone proved me wrong, and we really came out here and showed what we had.”
Group 3
Alex Trouilloud thrives in the William Paterson Rec Center.
The middle hitter scored the winning point for NV/Old Tappan in the 2016 Tournament of Champions final there. In Saturday’s visit, she had a match-high 10 kills in propelling the top-seeded Golden Knights past No. 3 Wayne Valley, 25-19, 25-20.
NV/Old Tappan (19-3) took home its fourth Group 3 title in five seasons and 13th all-time.
“It’s so exciting that I can come back here as a senior and kind of continue our legacy,” Trouilloud said. “It makes everyone proud – it makes me proud that we can just keep coming back on the court with the same intensity every year.”
Wayne Valley (27-5), meanwhile, made its first ever trip to the state finals and was in the hunt until the latter stages of both sets. The Indians were even at 16-all in game one, and they had game two tied at 19.
“The culture, really in Passaic County, has been that you get the county championship, and then you pack your bags,” Wayne Valley coach Jason Carcich said. “We started talking at the end of last season about changing the culture and wanting to do more, and get here to this level.”
Senior standout Lauren DeVoe led the Indians with 11 assists but was held in check offensively by the NV/Old Tappan defense. Junior OH Gracie Watson had nine kills, and senior libero Gina Ziegler tallied nine digs.
Junior Kelly Chen had a pair of crunch-time kills in both sets and had 12 assists, while Chrissy Chu added 11 and two aces. The pair set up a hitting corps – featuring Trouilloud, Gianna Fasano (six kills), Camryn Monfried and Nina Trent – that has picked up the slack for injured All-North Jersey middle Julia Passante.
They’ve even been relying on her from the sidelines.
“We all knew that we had really big shoes to fill,” Trouilloud said. “And Julia, her presence is still so important on the team. She’s like a mentor to all of us, so we couldn’t do it without her help and her encouragement.”
Non-Public
Besides possessing the skill that made it the top girls volleyball team in New Jersey entering that state tournament, Immaculate Heart had the numbers on its side, too.
The No. 1 Blue Eagles topped No. 3 Hudson Catholic in the final for the second year in a row, notching a 25-11, 25-14 sweep for their 11th Non-Public crown in a row.
“Since I looked at the dates [for the state finals] way back and realized we could win our 11th consecutive on 11/11, it’s been in our heads that we have to do it this time,” IHA coach Maria Nolan said.
“And of course, they want to keep the legacy going for IHA.”
Ironically, the player that led the way wears No. 10. Junior Sydney Taylor finished with six kills and, perhaps more importantly, nine digs to help the Blue Eagles (38-1) handle the attack of Hawks hitters Alanis Alvarado (eight kills) and Karen Ramiu (six).
“Alanis and Karen are both amazing hitters,” Taylor said, “and I really had to throw my body under [their spikes] and really pass despite the spin to get the ball up.”
MORE: Female Athlete of the Week: Erica Timpanaro, IHA
Alvarado served three consecutive aces in the second set, boosting Hudson Catholic (32-5) to a 7-2 lead.
The Hawks were up, 11-8, when Taylor served a 5-0 run with two aces to put IHA back in front. Seniors Kaela Wong and Erica Timpanaro (the No. 11) each did the same down the stretch.
Timpanaro ended with five digs, and senior Catherine Fazio had five kills.
Group 1
In its eighth straight state final, Bogota gave itself a shot at a seventh title in that span by winning the first set, 25-20.
However, the Verona tandem of middles Hunter Coppola and Carly Waterman ended up being too much to overcome, and the top-seeded Hillbillies took the final two sets, 25-21, 25-18, to claim their first Group 1 championship.
Coppola, a junior, had five of her match-high 19 kills to help Verona (30-0) build an 11-4 lead in game two. Waterman, a senior, served a 4-0 run with an ace to open game three, in which junior Brooke Cooney had all four of her kills, including the championship point.
“Both of their middles, they’re real-deal,” Bogota coach Brad DiRupo said. “When you play a team that’s got two legitimate hitters like that, it’s tough to defend.”
The No. 2 Bucs (25-3) did practically all the could in that regard, as five different players finished with double-digit digs, including seniors Alexa Siri (22), Lisbeth Suarez (12) and Anna Granquist (12). The trio are the only starters that will graduate.
Bogota had beaten Verona in the 2016 final, 2-0.
“We’ll draw off this experience, just like they drew off the experience last year of losing to us,” DiRupo said. “They were better for that.”
Group 4
Ridge will be the only Tournament of Champions entrant from outside of North Jersey, as the Somerset County school won a battle of unbeatens with Cherokee of Burlington County.
The No. 1 Red Devils moved to 26-0 with a 25-19, 25-20 sweep that provided their first victory in three trips to the state finals. No. 2 Cherokee finished 28-1.