Saturday, May 2, 2009

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

FAIR LAWN – Headiing into Friday's match at Fair Lawn, Wayne Valley was as hot as any volleyball team in North Jersey. After some early-season struggles, the Indians finally hit their stride and started to jell as a unit. However, Fair Lawn was equally as hot and looking to stay that way heading into the homestretch of its season. Something had to give when the two teams met in three-game thriller that came right down to the wire.

Wayne Valley appeared to be in control when it took a 23-19 lead late in the third game. However, they made several errors late and Fair Lawn was there to capitalize. The Cutters scored seven of the last eight points of the match to pull off a 25-22, 17-25, 26-24 triumph on their homecourt at Fair Lawn High School.

“This was a good win for us and we needed to win a match like this,” said Fair Lawn head coach Peter Zisa. “We had to bounce back a bunch of times, but we never gave up. I think this is a win that will help us with our confidence and it will show what we can do when we don’t give up and we play hard right until the very last point.”

This match was entertaining right from the first point of the match with both teams swinging away. Neither team gained an upper hand until late when Fair Lawn’s Rich Katznelson put down two straight kills to end the first game. But any potential momentum from Katznelson’s kills was non-existent in the second game.

Fair Lawn was within two until four straight errors surrounded by a block from Kurbin Kuhaj helped the Indians take a commanding lead, on their way to squaring the match and sending it to a third and deciding game.

“We gave away too many easy points in the second game and you can’t do that against a good team,” added Zisa. “We are not an overly talented team where we can just close people out with no problem, we have to go out and make things happen. The second game they just took it to us and we didn’t give them much of a fight.”

Wayne Valley led for just about all of the third game and consecutive kills by Kuhaj and Bez Arslani, off perfect sets from Kevin Mulvihill, along with a Fair Lawn attack error put the Indians two points from victory. However, the offensive consistency the Indians had throughout the match disappeared at the worst possible time.

Three straight errors allowed the Cutters to pull within one and then they caught a huge break. Dan Auld was just looking to bump the ball over the net when it hit the netcord and dropped in for a kill to tie the match at 23. The score was tied at 24 when a Dan Nugent kill gave the Cutters match point. Wayne Valley attempted to dig up a kill attempt on match point but was called for a double-hit, where a player touches the ball twice. The call ended the match and gave Fair Lawn a surprising victory.

“We had this one all but in the bag and we let it slip away,” said Wayne Valley head coach Jason Carcich. “Finishing matches is something we have struggled with all year, but we were getting better with until today. This match is as tough to swallow as any we’ve had this season. We came with a gameplan and for the most part, we executed that gameplan. But you have to finish off a good team when you get the chance and we didn’t do that today, it’s disappointing.”

Matt Sarna ran the Fair Lawn (11-4) offense effectively with a career-high 32 assists. Katznelson had a match-high 10 kills and Eric Grossberg also led all players with 19 digs. Nugent and Auld added nine and eight kills, respectively; while Oren Zyndorf had 12 digs.

Mulvihill added 23 assists, nine digs, and two blocks for Wayne Valley (11-3). Arslani and Joe Tible each had nine kills for the Indians, who will look to bounce back against top-seeded Clifton in the Passaic County semifinals on Wednesday.

For Fair Lawn, it was just about getting a win when hope was all but lost.

“To win like this is why I started playing volleyball to begin with, to be in a match like this,” said Fair Lawn’s Rich Katznelson. “We all just kept telling each other that we can’t give up and we knew coach (Zisa) wasn’t going to give up on us. This was a great match where every point mattered. I got into volleyball for the adrenaline and the excitement, and it doesn’t get much more exciting than this.”

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