Sunday, November 13, 2011

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

Emily Wilts is fired up during River Dell's sweep of Sterling that gave the Golden Hawks their first state championship since 1998.

WAYNE – As freshman Kate Brock and Emily Wilts were just excited to be a part of the varsity team and contributing in any way they could. After that season, longtime River Dell head coach Dianne Furusawa sat the two down and talked about what the duo could accomplish in their senior year with hard work and dedication towards becoming state champions. For some athletes, it might have been a speech that was shrugged off and forgotten about, but for Brock and Wilts, it was a speech they took to heart and a challenge that they took head-on.

Saturday represented the final hurdle in their long journey towards that goal and no team could possibly get in their way to stop them.

Wilts keyed a run in the first game and Brock then took over as they realized what Coach Furusawa had envisioned three years ago. River Dell closed out the match on a 13-0 run to win its first Group 2 state title since 1998 with a dominating 25-14, 25-11 triumph over Sterling at William Paterson University in Wayne.

“When coach gave us that speech, we knew what our goal was before we left high school,” said Wilts. “It’s been a long time since River Dell was state champs. Kate and I wanted to be the ones to help them win one. The way we played today was the same way we have been playing all year. Good practice and playing hard every point nets good results, and this is the end result we all wanted.”

Senior Kate Brock was dominant at the net for River Dell.

Sterling hung tough early and cut the lead to 9-8 on an ace by Melanie Kaiser. The Hawks then pulled away with Wilts putting down two tip kills and smashing another down the line in the midst of a 9-1 run that helped give River Dell grab game No. 1.

The Hawks struggled to get going in the second game until, after a sideout, Brock came up to the front row with River Dell holding onto to a 13-11 lead. She sparked the run with back-to-back blocks and followed with a kill to get them going again. Once they were on a roll, there was no stopping Brock or her teammates. Brock, who will play volleyball next year at Division 1 Stony Brook University, had three kills and three blocks in the clinching run.

“I think it was important as a senior and a captain that I stepped it up when I got a chance to at the net,” said Brock, who is also a standout on the basketball court. “When you get your opportunities, you have to make your presence felt and those two blocks in a row got me going again. I think being so familiar with every team we played in the state tournament and then knowing nothing about Sterling helped us a lot. We could focus more on what we needed to do and not worry so much about them. To win a state title in my senior year, couldn’t ask for anything better.”

Brock had a solid all-around match with match-highs of nine kills and three blocks to go with three digs and two assists for River Dell (23-3). Kalette deMarrais ran the offense with precision, notching 17 assists. Mary Maccabee led all players with 11 digs.

Lindsay Clark and River Dell will face Livingston in the opening round of the Tournament of Champions next weekend at William Patterson.

Katie Johnson had 10 assists and Kaiser finished with six digs to cap Sterling’s best season in the program’s history with its first section title and a final record of 25-4.

River Dell will move onto next week’s Tournament of Champions where it is the No. 5 seed, and will face No. 4 seed and Group 4 champion Livingston on Saturday at 2:00 P.M. also at William Paterson University. The winner will have to pull double-duty when they play a semifinal match against top-seeded IHA at 5:00 P.M.

Regardless of what happens next weekend, the one thing was obvious to both Wilts and Brock was that the talk Furusawa gave them in what seemed like forever ago stuck with them and fueled them to not only succeed, but to become champions.

“Our whole program has been supportive of each other this year and our entire team really stepped up today,” said Furusawa. “You work hard all year to be playing your best at this time. Our team hung together through thick and thin, and we never quit on any point in any match. That is really what makes a championship team.”

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