Sunday, October 18,
2009
By
Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer
TENAFLY – After
sweeping Rutherford to take the outright lead in the BCSL-American
Division girls volleyball standings on Friday, Tenafly was in
control of its own destiny for its first outright league title
since 2004. However, the Tigers had no time to rest as an upstart
Elmwood Park team came to town looking to pull an upset in the
first round of the Bergen County Tournament on Saturday.
But thanks to a strong
match from senior captain Jessie Shevins, the Tigers broke open
a tight first game and took control for good. Shevins finished
with a match-high 13 kills as 11th seeded Tenafly closed out the
first game with a 13-2 run en route to a 25-14, 25-13 win over
Elmwood Park.
“We knew Elmwood
Park came here to compete and they started off strong against
us,” said Tenafly head coach Jeff Koehler. “Maybe
we had a little hangover from the win over Rutherford, but to
be fair, they were just playing with more intensity than we were.
We needed a spark offensively in the first game. Jessie (Shevins)
and Alex (Zigouras) got us back on track.”
Yesterday marked just
the second appearance in the tournament for Elmwood Park in the
past two decades, but the Crusaders did not come out intimidated
and put the pressure on Tenafly early. Paulina Mihalec had a kill
and a block, then Melissa Forst added consecutive aces to put
Elmwood Park ahead 9-7 in the first game.
Tenafly tied the game
at 12, then used a huge run to close out the first game. Shevins
started it with back-to-back kills. She finished with three kills,
a block, and four service points in the 13-2 run that gave Tenafly
the opening game.
“(Shevins) was
a tough player and we gave Tenafly way too many free balls,”
said Elmwood Park head coach Elkie Voit. “We have an inexperienced
team when it comes to big matches and (Tenafly) had a lot of experience.
When you give away free points against a more polished team, you’re
in trouble. I think we’ve had a good season thus far. The
lessons we learned in this match can only help us towards going
to the state tournament.”
The Tigers rode the
hot hand of Shevins in the second game. The middle hitter had
four kills in an 8-0 burst that turned a 2-2 tie into a 10-2 lead.
She then ripped off nine straight service points to essentially
close out the match.
Shevins finished with
match-highs of 15 service points and 13 kills, to go along with
five digs and two blocks for Tenafly (18-3). Kally Kyriakides
ran the offense well and had 18 assists. Zigouras closed with
seven kills and four blocks. Michelle Koles led all Tigers with
seven digs.
In her first game back
from a lengthy battle with a back injury, Mihalec led Elmwood
Park (12-6) with seven kills and three blocks. Libero Heather
Winters was solid defensively, finishing with a match-high 13
digs. Kristin Mathews added seven digs and six assists.
Tenafly has a huge
24-hour span coming up, starting next Friday. First they have
Dumont, which will be for at least a share of the BSCL-American
Division title, then the Tigers will have to turn around and play
sixth-seeded Northern Valley/Demarest in the Bergen County Round
of 16. It is a tall task, but the Tigers plan on taking it one
step at a time.
“As long as we
played pretty well and came out with a win, that was our goal
for today,” said Shevins. “Our first priority was
to put the win over Rutherford behind us and move forward. We
started off a little slow, but once we got going we were fine.
I thought everyone stepped up today. We will have to step it up
another notch though if we want to win the league and go further
in the counties.”
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