Thursday, October 11, 2007

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Kim Runge had 6 kills and a match-high 12 digs as Demarest won its ninth straight, 25-13, 25-5, over Hackensack on Wednesday afternoon.

DEMAREST -- This was supposed to be the year, the one that the Demarest volleyball team came back to the pack. After grabbing every title (league, county, state, T of C) for which they competed for last year in furthering their status as the state's most dominant program, there was no way the Norsewomen could keep it going.

After all, they lost two all-state caliber players to graduation, their best hitter was diagnosed with a stress fracture in her back over the summer and the Norsewomen certainly looked beatable when they dropped a match to Fair Lawn to fall to 1-1 back in early September.

Not so fast…

With a 25-13, 25-5 dismantling of a talented Hackensack (11-3) team on Wednesday, the Norsewomen played two of their best games of the season and won their ninth straight match on the same day that they were seeded third in the Bergen County Tournament. To the surprise of no one, Demarest (10-1) is rounding into form just as tournament action is about to start.

“I don’t know what the girls think about it, but for me it has been nice not to be the team. It has allowed us to come into the gym everyday and work on what we need to work on for no other reason than to become the best that we can be,” said Demarest head coach Beth Powell. “Fair Lawn is a very good team this year and that loss was a part of growing as a team. Sometimes a team has to find out that it was not as good as it thought it was and then go back to the drawing board and get it right.”

Hackensack senior Alissa Sasso going up for a spike.

It is reminiscent of the 2004 Demarest team that lost All-State players Marybeth Martens (now a senior captain at Yale) and Daina Pucurs to graduation and then rebuilt in time to win the Bergen County Tournament.

Chelsea Hayes was a freshman on that 2004 team and is now a senior trying to fill the role of leader even while dealing with the back injury, which has her playing in a plastic brace.

“My freshman year we lost Daina and Marybeth, two of the best players in the state, and everybody was like, rebuilding year, but we came back to win counties. We love challenges, that’s what motivates us,” said Hayes. “Being a senior now I want to try to do the same thing for the younger girls that was done for me when I was a freshman. It’s funny that now I have seen it from both sides.”

Demarest scored the first five points of the first game against Hackensack and was never really tested the rest of the way. The Norsewomen built a 16-2 lead in Game 1 and were up 20-4 after a Hackensack hitting error. The Comets scored four of the next six points to make it somewhat respectable but a miscommunication on game point gave Demarest the 25-13 final.

It was much the same in Game 2 as Hackensack misfired on its first three serving opportunities and Demarest took advantage to the tune of a 9-1 advantage. Hayes won four straight service points, the last on a straight ace, before heading to the bench with her team in front 14-2.

Demarest senior Chelsea Hayes finished with a match high 8 kills.

“When you miss your first three serves of the second game it has to show you that our heads weren’t exactly in it. It was as if we just wanted it to be over,” said Hackensack head coach Lou Ferrante. “We know that Demarest is a great team and that it would be tough to win here, but it’s disappointing because we didn’t give them a match.”

Demarest sophomore Lindsay Runge used her jump-serve to score six straight points. Things were going so well for Runge that one of her serves hit the tape, but had enough speed to find its way over and fall to the floor untouched.

Hayes had a match-high eight kills for Demarest and senior Kim Runge added six kills to go along with a game-high 12 digs. Senior setter Lucero Silva led the Comets with three kills.

Hackensack is in the midst of a tough week. As the Demarest loss was sandwiched between a win over Montclair on Tuesday and a match against Holy Angels on Friday. Hackensack received the No. 16 seed in the county tournament and will host No. 17 Pascack Hills in the preliminary round on Saturday.

“I told the girls that I would settle for 2-1 this week with Montclair, Demarest and Holy Angels, which just lost to Paramus and is going to be angry,” said Ferrante. “Even after today were we did not play well at all, I would still like to see us get there and then see if we can get something going in the county tournament.”

Demarest is hoping to do the same.

“This is the first time that we won’t have a first round bye since I have been here and I like that,” said Hayes, whose team will host No. 30 Elmwood Park in the preliminary round. “We are going to be able to play a first round game and hopefully get on a roll from there.”

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