Monday, November 2,
2009
By
Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer
OLD TAPPAN –
Over the past five years, the Immaculate Heart Academy volleyball
team has been as dominant as any team in not just Bergen County,
but in New Jersey, and has two Tournament of Champions titles
to prove it. When it you look at the Blue Eagles’ impressive
resume over that span there is one glaring void, a Bergen County
championship. The last two years have been especially painful
as they came into the county final undefeated only to be upset
by Northern Valley/Demarest in 2007 and Northern Valley/Old Tappan
last year.
Those were losses that
all-state middle Ariel Scott and setter Kristin Flatekval took
to heart. With a shot at revenge against Old Tappan in Saturday’s
Bergen County Tournament final, the duo made sure there was not
going to be another heartbreaking upset this year.
Top-seeded IHA took
control midway through the first game and never trailed in the
match. Scott put down 15 kills and Flatekval had 27 assists as
IHA breezed its first Bergen County title since 1998 with a 25-13,
25-12 victory over at Northern Valley/Old Tappan High School.
“We wanted this
one so bad and we felt it was ours to lose if we worked together,”
said Flatekval. “I think we were scared to lose the last
two years. When you are afraid to make a mistake, that’s
when you end up making them. Today we were aggressive as we’ve
been all year. It’s an amazing feeling to finally get it
done in a county final.”
Old Tappan was riding
high after a come-from-behind, three-game win over Ramapo in the
semifinals on Friday night. That adrenaline carried over into
the beginning of the final as the Golden Knights came out swinging.
Junior Annisa Whitney had four early kills, the last of which
gave her team a 10-8 lead in the first game.
That was the last bright
spot for Old Tappan as little miscues added up to a big problem.
Once Scott and her teammates got their legs under them, it was
like a snowball rolling down a hill and the Golden Knights could
do little to slow them down.
A service mistake and
two attack errors give IHA a 12-11 lead, one it never gave back
even when the teams switched sides. Ariel Scott had four kills
and her sister, Raquel, added another with the Blue Eagles scoring
six of the next seven points to take control before Ariel Scott’s
kill capped the first game on a 17-3 run.
“I actually thought
we started off pretty well, but we weren’t able to maintain
that high level of play,” said Northern Valley/Old Tappan
head coach Melissa Landeck. “We made a few mistakes and
the momentum swung and we never got it back. How we started off
is how the entire match had to go for us to be successful and
it didn’t go that way. We dug ourselves a hole and we were
never able to get out of it.”
Both Scott sisters,
Danielle Michaels, and Petra Parros all had early kills to give
IHA a sizeable lead in the second game. The finishing touches
were put on by Athena Garbarino with some strong serving. She
notched three straight aces to put IHA up by double-digits, 18-7,
with IHA finally getting the monkey off of its back by hoisting
the trophy as Bergen County Champion.
“We were really
focused and none of us were afraid to swing away,” said
Ariel Scott, who has verbally committed to No. 1 ranked Penn State
University. “I thought we really did everything really well.
We’ve been stressing on being a complete team and not having
any weaknesses. I think we showed today that when we’re
doing everything well that we are going to be really tough to
beat.”
Ariel Scott had 15
kills, and eight digs to lead IHA (25-1). Raquel Scott and Parros
each added six kills, while libero Michelle Cruz chipped in with
seven digs.
Whitney led Northern
Valley/Old Tappan (19-3) with nine kills, while Taylor Jansen
added four. Kelsey Morgan led the Golden Knights with seven digs
and Anna Kate Miller had 10 assists.
“We felt if we
played our game, that it would be good enough to get a win and
we got it,” said IHA co-head coach Mike DeCastro. “It
sounds simple just to play loose and not make unforced errors,
but that’s what we did. The last two years in the county
final, we wondered ‘what if?’ because we weren’t
the aggressors. Today we came out with intensity and we played
extremely well.”
TO
BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS GAME STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com.
|