Team still building toward big season
By: John E. Powers
The establishment of the Hillsborough High School boys’ volleyball team as a program to take notice of continues.
The Raiders began week three of the season with a 5-1 record after wins over Watchung Hills (25-16, 25-20) and Ridge (25-11, 25-9) and a loss to South Brunswick (17-25, 25-25, 22-25). South Brunswick also beat the Raiders in the quarterfinals and went on to win the Hillsborough Tournament by beating Vernon Saturday afternoon.
"We’ve never beaten South Brunswick and we knew it would be tough," Hillsborough coach Todd Sudol said.
But Sudol is pleased with where his team stands.
The Raiders beat Watchung Hills for the first time as setter Jared Himelfarb had 17 assists and five assists. Middle Joe Caratozzolo had five kills and three blocks, middle Sean Kelly had seven kills and three digs and opposite Kyle Downey had four kills.
"It was nice beating them for the first time," Sudol said. "We controlled the tempo."
The next day, Himelfarb led the win over Ridge with 13 assists with Caratozzolo came up with six kills and three aces, Downey three kills and Kelly three aces, two blocks and three kills. Downey and hitter Mike Argueta had five kills each in the loss to South Brunswick with Himelfarb contributing 15 assists and two aces and Caratozzolo adding three kills and two blocks.
"It just didn’t go our way," said Sudol of the South Brunswick match. "We went three games with them, and we were a little off with our passing, off with some of our hitting. We just looked tired (Saturday). We struggled a bit again."
The Raiders beat Ferris and Lincoln, but lost to Hunterdon Central in the tournament.
"We moved the lineup around, played different guys," Sudol said. "We made sure to move people around to work on things. You always want your kids to play well, but we were flat and tired. We didn’t run our regular offense and had trouble getting it going."
But Sudol was quick to point out that there’ll be some tough spots along the way of a season that is 20-plus games long.
"We’re going to have our up-and-down weeks and games and we’ll just take them in stride," he said. "Well come back and get focused. The one thing about the volleyball season is that you play bad one day, you have the chance to rebound the next. It’s a long season.
"We face some tough teams and we expect some losses along the way. I just told the guys the important thing is to re-focus and get ready for our next week and not to lose sight of what we are after."
Sudol said South Brunswick exposed some parts of the game the Raiders need to work on.
"One of the things we have to focus on is accurate passing and we need to do a better job with our counter game," he said.
The Raiders were scheduled to play host to West Windsor-Plainsboro North Tuesday, then play at Bridgewater-Raritan Thursday in a huge local battle. The team’s objective is to earn its first state tournament playoff berth.
"The guys are confident and are positive," Sudol said. "It’s tough to win every single game when you have 22 of them."

