Wednesday,
May 12, 2010
By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer
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After
winning its first ever Passaic County championship, Wayne
Valley carried its perfect record into Garfield and escaped
with a 25-19, 17-25, 25-20 win, |
GARFIELD
– Wayne Valley’s season has been well…perfect,
so far. The undefeated Indians have surprised some by rising up
the ranks throughout the season to be the best boys volleyball
team in North Jersey. They won the school’s first county
boys’ volleyball title last week and are currently on the
longest winning streak in school history. But for every win they
earn on the court comes added pressure to hold off another challenge
from a tough opponent.
After
dropping the second game to Garfield and facing a deficit early
in the third and the red-hot Fillipe Fraga, they knew their perfect
season could easily come to a screeching halt. But with seniors
Kevin Mulvihill and Kurbin Kukaj leading the way, the Indians
were not about their joy ride come to an end just yet.
Mulvihill
effectively ran the offense and Kukaj came up huge in the third
and deciding game. Kukaj’s followed up a block with a kill
to cap a crucial run that allowed Wayne Valley to take the lead
for good and keep its record unblemished with a hard-fought 25-19,
17-25, 25-20 triumph over the Boilermakers at Garfield High School
on Tuesday.
“Any
time you beat a talented team, it’s a good win,” said
Wayne Valley’s Kurbin Kukaj. “We tried to contain
(Fraga) the best we could and not let them get on a big run in
the third game. As big as it was for us to win a county championship,
we’re still taking our season one step, one point, and one
game at a time.”
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| Fillipe
Fraga finished with 18 kills, 7 digs, 3 aces, and 3 blocks
for Garfield, which fell to 13-8 on the season. |
Feeding
off of a 25-23, 25-23 win over Clifton to win the program’s
first-ever Passaic County title, the Indians scored 12 of the
match’s first 16 points behind hard-hitting junior Bez Arslani.
They cruised from there to take the first game, but got a bit
complacent in the second game. A few mental errors gave Garfield
some life and just enough space to allow the dangerous Fraga to
heat up.
Fraga
had four straight kills, one more thunderous than the next, to
snap a 6-6 tie in game No. 2. The 6’3” senior dominated
the net in the second game with 10 kills, the last of which forced
Wayne Valley to a third game for only the fourth time all season.
An
ace from John Salcedo and another kill from Fraga put Garfield
ahead 5-2 in the third game, but the Indians have learned how
to win big matches and their confidence never wavered.
“We
weren’t in an ideal position, but I have to say that I was
never nervous that we would lose the match,” said Wayne
Valley’s Kevin Mulvihill. “(Fraga) is one of the best
players I’ve ever seen and we couldn’t let him go
off. As a whole, we had to make some adjustments and make sure
we didn’t give away any more points because we didn’t
have much room for error.”
Arslani
started off the big run with a kill and Kukaj had three kills
and a block in a 13-4 run that turned a three-point deficit into
a 15-9 lead. But three straight errors followed by a Fraga kill
sliced the lead down to two. The Boilermakers never got any closer
as Kukaj and Arslani each had big kills to help Wayne Valley avoid
the upset and remain as North Jersey’s only unbeaten team
and one of only two undefeated teams left in the state.
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| Bez
Arslani and Wayne Valley, the No. 1 team in North Jersey,
improved to 21-0 on the season. |
“We
had one of the best teams in the state on the ropes, but we made
too many mistakes at bad times,” said Garfield head coach
Tom Giuffre. “We had four service errors in the third game.
Against a team that is one of the best in the state, you can’t
get away with that. But on the positive side is that playing this
well against Wayne Valley gives us a lot of confidence going into
the state tournament. We know if we can play this well, we think
we can make a run.”
Mulvihill
dished out 26 assists for Wayne Valley (21-0). Arslani and Kukaj
had 14 and 12 kills, respectively.
Fraga had 18 kills, seven digs, three aces, and three blocks for
Garfield (13-8). Salcedo also had 26 assists and Kamil Rutkowski
chipped in with eight digs and six kills. The Boilermakers will
attempt to win their first Bergen County title on Saturday. They
are the No. 3 seed in the tournament.
With
a county championship and an unblemished record thus far in its
back pocket, the Indians will now look towards a state title.
With the undefeated record, they will be their section’s
No. 1 seed. While the pressure is mounting, head coach Jason Carcich
is helping to keep it off of them.
“This
is supposed to be a fun game and we’re having a ton of fun
right now,” said Carcich. “But we also know that we’re
not sneaking into a gym anymore hoping for an upset against the
best teams. Now teams are going to be gunning for us every time
out. As the competition gets better, we will have to rise up and
get better. I’m proud at how far we’ve come this season,
but we still have a lot of work left to do.”
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