Sunday, November 15, 2009

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

WAYNE – After winning the first game and taking a quick lead in the second game, it seemed like this Northern Highlands team was taking a page from last year’s team success. Last year the Highlanders upset their way to a state championship and capped it off against a strong West Morris Central team in the Group 3 title match to earn the girls volleyball program’s first-ever state title.

But this time around, West Morris-Central responded to force a third game and when it got there, all-state middle Kelly Maguire carried the Wolfpack home. After struggling through the first two games, Maguire caught fire and doused the hopes of another upset by the Highlanders.

Maguire put down seven of her 16 kills in the third game as eighth-seeded Northern Highlands could not pull off a third straight upset and fell 18-25, 25-20, 25-17 to second-seeded West Morris Central, for the Wolfpack’s first volleyball state title and only the second ever by a Morris County school.

“This is the best feeling I could ever imagine having,” said West Morris senior Jackie Falzarano. “It would have crushed us if we lost to Northern Highlands again. I think last year they really took us by surprise when we played them. Even though they had a couple of upsets, we knew how good they were and how well they were playing. They weren’t going to take us by surprise this time.”

After a tightly-contested battle in the first game, Northern Highlands forged a small lead by winning the longest point of the match. Kaitlyn Dormer and Jen Forhecz each had huge digs to keep the point alive before junior outside hitter Nicole Scardino ended it with a kill for a 16-12 lead. That sparked the Highlanders to win the first game and they maintained that momentum by taking a 5-1 lead in game No. 2.

But then Central’s Morgan Blair heated up at the net and the serving of Morgan Cross helped the Wolfpack embark on a 9-0 burst for a 10-5 lead. An ace by Hannah Meyer and an attack error helped the Highlanders pull to within a point, 20-19, but could not get over the hump, leaving the match hinged on a third and deciding game.

“We had the momentum and we had to show that we wanted it more than they did,” added Falzarano. “I knew if we brought it to a third game that we had the edge mentally. There are so many seniors on this team that we had to leave it all on the floor and walk out of the gym making sure we had no regrets.”

Falzarano did the dirty work in the third game with several spectacular digs to keep points alive for the Wolfpack’s big hitters, Maguire and Blair. Blair had two big kills early and Maguire added even bigger ones later in the game. The James Madison-bound Maguire had consecutive kills to put West Morris ahead 14-11.

Northern Highlands was within four, but could get no closer. Blair had a kill and Falzarano followed with a block to stretch it to a six-point lead, 18-12. The Highlanders ran out of runs and never got closer than six points the rest of the way.

“I thought we fought really hard, we just gave away too many points,” said Northern Highlands head coach Caryn Schanstine. “West Morris is too good of a team and we fell too far behind to catch up to them. West Morris executed when they had to and you have to give them a lot of credit for that.”

Falzarano led all players with 15 digs, along with four kills, an ace, and a block for West Morris Central (28-3). Maguire finished with 16 kills and Blair added 13. Chrissy Baffutto had 13 assists and nine digs, while Jessica Uphoff led the team in assists with 17. The Wolfpack were awarded the third seed in the Saturday’s Tournament of Champions. They will take on Group 4 champion Bridgewater-Raritan in the first semifinal at 3:00 also at William Paterson University.

Jen Forhecz finished with a match-high 28 assists and Kaitlyn Dormer added eight digs for Northern Highlands, who season ended with an 18-9 record. Cansu Kazancioglu and Hannah Meyer had 13 and 12 kills, respectively.

The Highlanders are despondent about the outcome of yesterday’s match. But this is also a team that barely qualified for the Bergen County Tournament and at one point earlier this season was hovering around .500. They finished the season winning 12 of their final 16 matches, including impressive wins in the state tournament over top-seeded Northern Valley/Old Tappan and fourth-seeded Fair Lawn.

“We played with heart and we never gave up or gave in to any tough situation,” added Schanstine. “Today, West Morris did not make as mistakes as we did and they were a more crisp in the end than we were. But to go from where we were as a team just a month ago to where we are now is a huge improvement and we should be very proud of that.”

TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS GAME STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com.