Pirates quiet sister school by sweeping Knights
By: Justin Feil
Their school is more than a mile from West Windsor-Plainsboro High North, but the West Windsor-Plainsboro High South boys’ volleyball players still heard all the talk. And all the Pirates wanted was to quiet down the upstart Knights.
"I’ve heard a lot of kids bragging that they were going to beat us," said Ben Skidmore, who helped the Pirates to a 2-0 win Wednesday. "We showed them again that we are the better school. They were more confident this year and we crushed them. Last year, they complained that they didn’t have seniors. We both did this year and we won again."
Skidmore had five kills and two blocks to help the Pirates stay perfect in two seasons against North. WW-PS won the teams’ first meeting of the season, 2-0, and also won both matches last year.
"We played smart," said South head coach Michael Adams, whose team improved to 10-7 going into today’s game at Bridgewater-Raritan. "That’s what kept us from giving up too many easy points. We ran the middle, which is where Ben is. We ran it as much as we could. He’s big and tall and hits it from so high that it’s hard to block."
And when Skidmore wasn’t called upon, it was Sunny Kumar, who added seven kills and four digs, or Mun-Woo Lee, who had five kills, a block and nine digs, who got the job done.
"They had a lot of tips last time that we didn’t pick up," Lee said. "We didn’t make a lot of dumb mistakes."
WW-PN head coach Mike Smyrychynski could not say the same after his Knights fell to 7-8 going into today’s doubleheader against East Orange.
"It’s the same problem," the second-year head coach said. "Hitting errors. We had 21 kills and 30 errors. The second game, South’s defense really picked it up in crunch time. But we gave them the lead because of untimely hitting."
In the second game, the Knights mounted a valiant comeback after trailing, 13-8. They lost the first game, 15-8, and seemed headed for a similar fate when they put together a 4-0 run to pull within one. But after they finished off a furious rally, they couldn’t score when they got the serve back and South put the game away on its next two services, 15-12, to finish the sweep.
"We had a slump in the middle and then we started picking it up," Adams said. "I think our game communication was the best I’ve seen for a while."
The win puts the Pirates in good position for what Adams believes could be the first state tournament appearance in more than five years. WW-PS must remain at or above .500 to qualify, and though it’s a young, the players are confident.
"We lost a lot of good players last year," Skidmore said. "We have a lot of fresh new players. We’re stepping up to the plate. We have a great coach and our go-to guy, Mun-Woo. We’re playing harder than we used to and we’re taking it seriously."
"We hit a lot better than last year," said Lee, who played Skidmore’s middle position last year but has moved to the outside this season. "We just have better players now. We worked harder in the summer."
Both are seniors who hope to play at the club level next season in college. But before they go, they’d like the chance to play in the state tournament.
"We just have to stay a little above .500," Lee said. "We have Hunterdon Central left, and they’re good. The rest of the teams, we can beat."
Particularly if the Pirates are able to duplicate the defensive effort that it showed against the Knights. Appropriately enough, the game ended when WW-PS dug a shot right back over the net to wrap up the win.
"We set up big blocks," Adams said. "That made our defense much easier. We had better defense all around."
And there are still some wrinkles for the Pirates to iron out before they think about a run in the state tournament.
"We could improve on our serve receive and our passing," said Skidmore, who will attend James Madison University next fall. "Everything else has been all right. We’re playing smart volleyball."
It made all the difference as South retained bragging rights against its sister school, WW-P North, this season.
"We were definitely still confident," Smyrychynski said. "Earlier in the season, I considered us favorites and South came in as the underdogs. We had a couple of poor performances before that match that hurt our guys’ confidence. We were ready to go this time. We were really looking forward to this match. South just worked real hard.
"We have to beat Southern Regional (Tuesday) to make states. We have eight games left. We’ve lost tight ones to them every time. They play very similar to how we play. It’s one of my five must-win games. So far, we’re 0-4. They have what it takes to win. They just don’t know how to do it."
And until they do, the South boys’ volleyball squad is going to be doing all the talking.