North volleyball trip doesn’t go as planned

Knights’ best season ends with loss to Cherry Hill East

By: Justin Feil
   Wednesday’s second-round state tournament game against Cherry Hill East didn’t turn out the way that the West Windsor-Plainsboro North boys’ volleyball had envisioned it with high-fives and hugs after an upset of the sixth seed.
   Instead, Cherry Hill East took early leads in both games to triumph, 15-10, 15-12, and end the best season in the Knights’ three-year history a win shy of the state quarterfinals.
   "The kids really wanted to get this," said WW-PN head coach Mike Smyrychynski, whose team ended its campaign 18-4. "When we lost, they knew we just didn’t do what we needed to do today. There was something there that they didn’t have. Hopefully they’ll remember that when they go to the next level."
   It was the high school finale for nine Knight seniors as well as for Smyrychynski, who is moving to Hawaii. They helped take a program to a complete turnaround within three seasons, and that is the one thing that Wednesday’s disappointment cannot take away.
   "Every time I think how upset I am," Smyrychynski said, "I think back to three years ago when we were 4-17. Now we’re 18-4. They had a fantastic year. I think the program will take a step back next year, but not that far back. There are some good juniors."
   And there’s a freshman class that was thrown into the fire as the starting junior varsity team this year. It might be another three years, but Smyrychynski believes that could be the next class to rival this year’s senior class, which led the Knights to a No. 11 seed and a tie with Bridgewater-Raritan for the Non-Greater Middlesex Conference league title. Those accomplishments also made Wednesday’s loss harder to swallow.
   "If we had brought a better game — not even our best game — we could have won," Smyrychynski said. "The seniors are very disappointed. They recognized when we walked off the court that we were a good team and we just didn’t have it today. Cherry Hill has the tradition. Maybe that helped them. But it’s disappointing.
   "It’s not like we played badly," he added. "But we could have played better."
   WW-PN was led by Ramine Ziai, a senior outside hitter, who had a match-high seven kills and brought the Knights within striking distance in the second game with some timely serves. But North spent a lot of energy overcoming a 7-1 second-game deficit.
   "I was not expecting to lose the match," Smyrychynski said. "When we lost the first game, I never panicked. I didn’t worry. We’ve had some off games and usually they pick themselves up. I didn’t think I had to say much, and I didn’t. I just thought we had to make a couple adjustments, but then they went up, 6-1, and I called time out and got in their face a little bit.
   "And they started playing better. They played with a little emotion and fire. And they made up the difference to make it 7-6 and come all the way back. We were doing the things we do well — controlling passes, shooting for the outside and make the other team hit opposite and dig it. But they responded and their middle was tough. They picked up their play and went up, 14-7."
   It might have seemed over then, but as if anyone needed proof, North showed what a strong team it is by catching up before Cherry Hill East closed out the second game and the match.
   "The ending and middle was more of how I expected the match to go," Smyrychynski said.
   But it wasn’t the overall ending that the West Windsor-Plainsboro North boys’ volleyball team was looking for in its best season to date and first trip past a second-round state tournament game. But it’s just a start for a Knights program that only expects return many more encores.