By: Rich Fisher
The fun part of the season if you consider tournament pressure fun is approaching for the South Brunswick High volleyball team.
The seeding meeting for the NJSIAA Group IV tournament is being held tonight (Thursday) and the seeding for the Greater Middlesex Conference tournament was held Wednesday night after press time. The Vikes should have gotten a top-two seed in the GMC’s, especially since they have a good chance of entering the tournament as the regular-season champ or co-champ of the Central Jersey Volleyball League’s Middlesex County Division.
South Brunswick entered Wednesday’s game against Edison at 15-5 overall and 12-3 and tied for first with J.P. Stevens. If the Vikings defeated Edison, they will have either tied for the title or won it, depending on what Stevens did in its season finale.
As for the states, South had an 11-2 record before the cutoff, and hopes to get an easier first-round game than last year’s tilt against South Jersey power Eastern. Unlike most sports, volleyball is not divided into sectionals, but rather one large group.
"I counted 28 teams that qualified for group four," coach Nancy McDonald said. "I’m just hoping we don’t get a Hunterdon Central or a Bridgewater. I’m hoping to get a nice evenly matched game, whether it’s home or away, and that we have a nice opportunity to win a first-round game.
"The state does have a power point rating based on record and strength of schedule, so that could hurt us. I don’t think they look at the Middlesex Division as that strong of a conference, like they look at the schools in North Jersey. That might not help us when it comes to seedings."
Either way, the Vikings appear to be a respectable team capable of holding its own in the early round of the states, and going far into the GMC tournament. They have been fairly consistent most of the season, stubbing their toe on occasion but usually bouncing right back and avoiding losing streaks.
After losing to powerful Bridgewater-Raritan last week, South rebounded with a 25-18, 25-14 win over Old Bridge last Wednesday. Katie Kokaska had 13 service points (two aces) and six assists, Kristen Fortunato had five service points, Courtney Dwyer had a season-high eight kills, four service points (three aces) and Sarah Koenig had three aces.
On Friday, the Vikings suffered a disappointing loss to East Brunswick by double 25-21 scores. Junior middle hitter Janelle Payne had four kills in the loss.
"We just didn’t play well against East Brunswick," said McDonald, whose team had beaten the Bears earlier this year. "We didn’t serve well. That would have pretty much locked up the division for us. We just couldn’t get anything going. But they’ve improved since early in the season and certainly have come together as a team."
South bounced back again on Monday with a 25-20 and 25-14 win over Long Branch. Sarah Koenig had 14 service points (11 aces) and six kills, while Isabella Santiago had nine service points and Payne had three service points (two aces), three kills and two blocks.
"Janelle Payne has kind of come around for us the past couple of games," McDonald said. "She’s a six-foot basketball player in her second year of playing volleyball. She’s starting to have an impact as far as playing in that middle.
"She’s going against some of the bigger and tougher middles in the conference, she’s holding her own, really doing a nice job. She’s starting to feel comfortable in her position and setting up some offense for us."
Payne, one of just four juniors on the roster, has been rotating in the backcourt, then moves up front and allows Nikki Weiss to sub in the back.
"Nikki’s a big girl too," McDonald said. "She plays some middle up front, depending on our match-up in a particular game. If the other team has a particularly big middle, we leave Janelle in there for other match-ups.
"But Janelle’s timing is so much better now, and you can see it in the games. We kind of look to her. She’s there in the middle and can just put it on the floor."
And she’s come into her own just in time for all the fun.
