Pirates prevail in rivals matchup
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Both the West Windsor-Plainsboro North and WW-P South girls’ volleyball teams have shown the trademark inconsistencies of youth.
Both have also shown promise.
In the early season and in their first matchup of the season, the Pirates have gotten the better of the Knights. WW-P South triumphed, 25-22, 25-14, Tuesday to improve to 6-1.
”We had a lot of hitting errors in Game 1 which made it close,” said Pirates head coach Michael Adams, whose team faces unbeaten Bridgewater-Raritan today. “In the second game, we cleaned up our serving and we were hitting the ball in. You can see what happens when you play better and what it does to the score of the game.
”North played well Game 1 and were scrappy too. There were some long rallies from both teams. It was nice to see.”
The Knights slipped to 1-3 on the season. They have plenty of youth in their lineup with key returners in seniors Terri Falk and Tracey Haneman and juniors Lucy Xu and Kristen Jeevers along with varsity newcomers Julia Duprat and Kathryn Davis, both who are juniors.
”We have a lot of junior girls that are stepping up and making plays for us,” said North head coach Erich Trautwein. “We’re going to try to keep making them better players.”
The Knights endure many of the same issues that any inexperienced team does. Consistency is the biggest.
”We’re so up and down now,” Trautwein said. “Sometimes we do some really great things. One day we’ll have a great practice, then the next day it’ll be terrible. We’re trying to find that balance of people learning the game and seniors leading us to make some plays. We just need to be more consistent.”
The Pirates, too, are young with six sophomores and a freshman on their roster. Four of them see regular playing time, two as starters. They move up to varsity after finding success at the sub-varsity level last year.
”They struggled early in their season knowing where to go,” Adams said. “By the end of the season, we invited all these great JV teams in for a tournament we host. They won the JV tournament against all these teams that have been playing three and four years together. They came a long way in a short time. And they all play in the off-season.”
The Pirates return seniors Deborah Brodsky, Andrea Echeverri and Michelle Emerman, as well as junior Lea Williams from last year’s 11-7 squad that won a state tournament game. Added to the mix are juniors Wendy Gu and Alexandra Thumm, sophomores Rachael Degnan, Amy Greenberger, Hannah Jin, Melissa Lichtman, Jaime Mishkin and Devon Ngai. Misty Ozbek., a freshman from Turkey, is starting at outside or opposite for the Pirates.
”It’s very competitive at practice,” Adams said. “Many years, you have a dominant six or seven and then next five or six tend to be so much weaker. There’s no such thing this year. It doesn’t matter who I have playing, it’s very competitive matches. It’s fantastic.”
The Pirates expect to grow as they gain more playing time this season. Their lone loss came at the hands of Hunterdon Central when they did not play up to their potential. Other than that, they have been learning while winning.
”I figured we’d definitely struggle with the experience factor and dealing with the pressure of big matches,” Adams said. “We had a couple decent (matches). We had a good one against Shawnee. They’re big and strong.
”Usually we’re consistent and play good defense and don’t have a lot of errors,” he added. “We make you make plays.”
Early in the season, the Pirates are figuring out who exactly on their team will be making the plays. They spread the wealth in Tuesday’s win. Brodsky and Williams had five kills apiece, Echeverri had five digs, Greenberger had nine assists and three aces while Ozbek had four kills and four aces.
”Some players are playing confidently,” Adams said. “It’s match to match. It’s not quite where I want it yet. I know they’re capable of much more. By the end of the season, I think they’ll be right on key and playing some great volleyball.”

