Friday, October 30, 2009

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

Kelsey Morgan returning a serve for Old Tappan, which overcame a one-game deficit to knock off Ramapo in the semifinals of the Bergen County Volleyball Tournament.

OLD TAPPAN – Old Tappan’s volleyball team, the defending Bergen County champion that had won 17 of its 19 matches this season, has not had many games like the one it played to open Friday night’s Bergen County Tournament semifinal against Ramapo. Not this season and not in the past several seasons. Errors in serve receive, mistakes at the net and just general sluggishness all the way around led to the Golden Knights getting routed in the opening set against the Green Raiders, who had already handed OT one of its two losses during the regular season.

The negative was that the Golden Knights were one game away from elimination, but the positive, of there was one, was that most of their first-game troubles were of their own doing and were fixable. It wasn’t like they were getting run over; they just couldn’t curtail the errors that were costing them point after point.

“I do not want to take anything away from Ramapo’s performance. There was a reason they were in this gym tonight, there is a reason why they have the record they have and we have tremendous respect for them as a program, but we knew we could play miles and miles above what we did in that first game,” said Old Tappan head coach Melissa Landeck. “We just had to commit ourselves to worrying about our side of the court and doing what we do best. We had to relax a little bit and just play.”

Junior Nicole Kincade had 15 kills for Ramapo.

Once Old Tappan stopped shooting itself in the foot, it started to shoot balls over and through the Ramapo defense. The Golden Knights returned the favor with a lopsided win in Game 2, then took the lead for good on the 19th point of Game 3 to rally for a 12-25, 25-16, 25-19 win that put them back in the county final with a chance to defend their title against IHA, the team they knocked off for the championship one year ago.

“We just got off to a slow start. We just kind of spiraled downward and never picked it up in that first game,” said Anna Kate Miller, Old Tappan’s junior setter. “But we wanted it so bad. There is nothing that we want more in the world than to win this game and win this county tournament. We knew it was now or never and we brought it [in the last two games].”

There were probably no two more important points in the match than the two that Old Tappan won to start the second game and get some of its swagger back. Kelsey Morgan opened Game 2 with a service winner and Aiyana Whitney then put up a block that gave Old Tappan a 2-0 lead.

Whitney a junior and one of the state’s top hitters, did some damage from behind the service line. Leading 6-4 when Whitney took over, she served up four straight points, including her own kill off a back row set by Miller, to put Old Tappan ahead 10-4.

Aiyana Whitney had 20 kills and 7 blocks for Old Tappan.

Ramapo closed to within two points once and to within three twice at 16-13 and 17-14, but a service error pushed OT back in front by four and they evened the match by closing out Game 2 with five straight points, starting with Cortney Weissenborn’s tip kill and ending with a receiving error by Ramapo.

“In the first game we executed at every level that we wanted to. We had a game plan to attack certain kids, to be at certain spots on the court and we did it. We couldn’t have asked for a better start against that team,” said Ramapo head coach Dave Van Hook. “But Old Tappan’s passing was much better in Game 2. They were not on in the first game and we took advantage of it. It is not often that you beat a team of that caliber by that [first game] score, but they started dinking and tipping just to get themselves back in it and then they started to play better in all areas.”

Game 3 was tied eight times through the first 18 points, but it was an unusual sequence that put the Golden Knights in front for good. Ramapo setter Meaghan Hubert sent the ball to the outside, but Whitney got up to block the attack. The Green Raiders were able to dig the ball out of the net to set up another attacking sequence, but Whitney put up another successful block to earn the point and a 10-9 Old Tappan lead.

Sarah Giegerich had 8 kills and 6 digs for Ramapo.

The Knights then ran off five straight points and, when Whitney and Miller got up together to share a block, they opened a 15-9 lead in the deciding game. Ramapo crept back to within 16-14, but a block, an attack error and a Whitney crusher off a dig attempt put Old Tappan up 20-14 and it cruised home from there.

Whitney was locked up with Ramapo’s Nicole Kincade in an entertaining duel between two of the best junior hitters in the state and both piled up some impressive stats. Whitney finished with 20 kills, 7 blocks and served two aces, while Kincade put down a team-high 15 kills, many of them on Ramapo’s bread-and-butter play where she circles in behind Hubert and gets to the ball before the block can set itself.

Hubert finished with 24 assists for Ramapo, which also got an outstanding performance from junior Sarah Giegerich, who finished with 8 kills and 6 digs. Libero Erin O’Hagan led the Green Raiders’ defense with 8 digs.

Old Tappan got contributions from every player it ran out on the floor as Taylor Jansen backed up Whitney with 7 kills and 9 digs, Alex Radetzky added 5 kills and Morgan dug up 8 balls from the libero position. Miller had 26 assists, while Katie Blank added 6 assists and 6 digs for Old Tappan, which improved to 18-2 and moved to within one win of back-to-back county championships.

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