Sunday, October 25, 2009

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Anna Kate Miller had 17 assists for Old Tappan, the defending Bergen County champion, which held off Indian Hills in three games in the Round of 16.

OLD TAPPAN – It is the fun part of tournament play when a team that is expected to get run over by a higher seed plants itself directly in harm’s way and makes a stand. Two days after it took its lumps in a two-game sweep at the hands Northern Valley/Old Tappan in NBIL play, Indian Hills got another chance at the defending Bergen County champion. It was a trying situation to say the least for the Braves, who were not only the No. 18 seed hovering around .500 for the season, but Sunday’s Bergen County Tournament Round of 16 match against the second-seeded Golden Knights was played at Old Tappan in what amounted to another brutal NBIL road game.

But rather than bow down then bow out quietly after losing the first game, Indian Hills got a cross-court winner from Taylor Grbelja late in game No. 2 to snap a tie and, by winning seven of the last eight points, forced a third and deciding set against one of New Jersey’s best teams.

“Our goal was to make it to this day in the county tournament, to get here and play with everybody watching,” said Indian Hills head coach Karen Klingner, whose team knocked off 15th-seeded River Dell in the opening round. “Had we made it past here that would have been great and we gave ourselves a chance, we really did.”

Perri Goldberg (left) led Indian Hills upset bid with 11 kills and 17 digs.

But the momentum that Indian Hills grabbed when it wrested Game 2 away from Old Tappan ended when Aiyana Whitney smothered a shot at the next to give the home team the first point of the deciding game and Old Tappan wrested back control on the way to a 25-19, 19-25, 25-11 win. The Golden Knights now advance to the quarterfinals where they will play the No. 7 Mahwah, a winner in two games over No. 10 Glen Rock.

“I think it once again speaks to the level of play in our league that two days later we had to come back and face a league opponent again. It was not an easy thing to do when they had a day in between to make some adjustments,” said Old Tappan head coach Melissa Landeck. “We had kind of a lop-sided score on Thursday and I am sure that was part of their motivation and I am sure that today was much indicative of who they are and they will contend in [the] Group 2 [state tournament].”

The problem with playing a team like Old Tappan is that there are no shortcuts to pulling the upset. The key to Indian Hills win in Game 2 was that it did the fundamentals, serve/receive being foremost among them. But any mistake against Old Tappan is usually punished harshly and the Knights can attack in many different ways.

Whitney is the obvious game-changer with her height and athletic ability in the middle, but OT can go to a variety of talented hitters on the outside like Alex Radetzky and Taylor Jansen and even mix-up their setters as Katie Blank and Anna Kate Miller are as interchangeable at that position as they are effective.

Aiyana Whitney was dominant at the net for Old Tappan, finishing with a 11 kills.

All of those options, as well as an active defense, were too much for the upset-minded Braves to deal with in the deciding game. Whitney hit a blast to earn the second point of Game 3 and Old Tappan raced out to a 6-0 lead. And OT showed off its full arsenal later in the game with Whitney in the back row. Miller set her for a point from the back row that pushed the Knights’ lead to 12-3 and when Whitney took over the serve, her teammates took over the point scoring.

Jansen connected from the outside on a set by Miller and then did the same on a set by Blank. After an Indian Hills time out, Blank joined in with a kill from the outside and by the time Whitney lost her serve, Old Tappan had run off five straight points and led by a 17-4 score.

“Indian Hills did a great job and they rallied to win the second game. We played them the other day, but they came out here today a different team,” said Blank. “I think in Game 3 the first few points gave us momentum and the confidence to win out. We have a great team this year. We have great passing, we have great setting and we have hitters that are all awesome. We can go to any of them and they are all ready to hit.”

Amanda Parks handed out 22 assists for Indian Hills.

The stats backed up Blanks' statement as she finished with 13 assists, two behind Miller, who finished with 15. Whitney led the Knights with 11 kills while Jansen added 8 kills and 12 digs. Radetzky had 5 kills and Kelsey Morgan (17 digs) led the way defensively for the Knights, who improved to 16-2 on the season and to within three wins of defending their county championship.

“Last year was a little bit more of a, I don’t want to say Cinderella story because I think we were a respected team, but we weren’t the team that was expected to win it all and we had the luxury of playing a little bit of the spoiler,” said Landeck, whose team upset IHA, also this year’s No. 1 seed in last year’s county final. “I think now we are on that radar screen to advance deep and so we are on a completely different road in that sense.”

Indian Hills was led by Perri Goldberg’s 11 kills and she also added a team-high 17 digs, while Amanda Parks finished 22 assists for the Braves, who fell to 10-10 on the season.

Had Indian Hills volleyball team been in any other league beside the NBIL, the Indians would probably have a gaudy record and be talked about as a potential Group 2 state title contender. But being that the Braves have a regular schedule that includes not just North Jersey heavyweights, but some of the states best teams like Old Tappan, Demarest, Ramapo, Northern Highlands, Indian Hills has had to fight just to keep its head above water.

That will change when the Braves hit the Group 2 state playoffs and they are looking forward to the opportunity to make some noise.

“We are very confident going into that,” said Klingner. “We’d like to try to get to William Paterson [for the Group 2 state final].”

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