Register, South boys stop Cinnaminson
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Jeff Register has been waiting his whole career for a chance to play in the boys volleyball state tournament.
The West Windsor-Plainsboro South senior made sure the wait was worth it as he registered five kills, four digs and four aces to help the seventh-seeded Pirates stop 10th-seeded Cinnaminson, 25-10, 25-11, Tuesday in the first round of the Central Jersey sectional.
”We did have some confidence,” Register said. “This has been our best year since I’ve been around. This is the first time I’ve been in states, so I was a little nervous.
”We’ve had a lot of confidence through the whole season. I think that shows in our record what we’ve been able to do and I think we can bring that to Bridgewater on Thursday.”
The Pirates were looking for an upset against second-seeded Bridgewater-Raritan in a quarterfinal matchup scheduled for Thursday. The winner advances to next Tuesday’s semifinals. WW-P South could sense a different urgency to their state game.
”It feels like the stakes are higher,” Register said. “It feels like the last game of the season. You want to win the game and you want to keep playing and end the season on a high note. It’s a little different from what we’ve been used to.”
Danny Fitzpatrick had 14 assists, three digs and two kills, Avinash Garlapati had six kills, four digs and two blocks. Sergey Ilyukhin had four blocks and two kills, Aziz Hakimi had a pair of aces and three digs and Andrew Chen had five digs to highlight the Pirates’ play Tuesday.
”We’re a really balanced team,” Register said. “Danny can go pretty much anywhere he wants and we know it’s going to go to the other side of the court. It’s a great strength for us. The other team is always on their toes, they don’t know what to expect. I think we need to keep that up. We need everyone working as hard as they can and playing as best they can.”
The Pirates improved to 15-8 with their win. It’s been the sort of season that they expected with a team that includes eight seniors. Most of the WW-P South contributors are seniors.
”We could kind of see this coming with all the seniors we had,” Register said. “The previous years prepared us for this year.”
Seniors at the close of their high school career can give a team an extra push, and the Pirates are hopeful that’s the case. This class wants to continue its run.
”We’ve only lost two games in the last couple weeks of the year,” said Pirates head coach Dan Macionis. “We’re definitely starting to peak at the right time.”
One of the Pirates’ pre-season goals was to reach the state tournament. They have been able to click that off their list. Macionis was happy with the start that the Pirates got, and he’s confident that his team will continue to compete in each round despite not having been to states before.
”I haven’t seen them roll over in any game this year,” Macionis said. “They know it’s time to play. They have a bit of a switch for going out there and turning it up.”
He has seen them do it all throughout the regular season. It’s why the state inexperience isn’t such a concern.
”Our schedule is pretty hard,” Register said. “The Central region is really hard. We played a lot of really good teams. Playing those teams prepared us for the level of play we need to have in the state tournament to make a run.”
The sectional includes plenty of teams that WW-P South has already seen. They have been competitive with the likes of Bridgewater already this year.
”We’ve played almost every single one of the teams that are still in it,” Macionis said. “We were able to pull one out at East Brunswick. They’re a high seed. We split with Piscataway. Whoever is playing the best, whoever makes the least amount of errors, that’s what it comes down to. I think we can compete with Bridgewater if it comes down to a slugfest. It’s definitely a toss-up.”
Said Register: “I thought the regular season was really good. There were a couple games I thought we could have played better overall, but I was happy with the regular season and how it turned out.”
Register is hoping that he can be one of the weapons for the Pirates to keep them alive in the state tournament. He’s been a versatile part of the South varsity for three seasons.
”He’s had many roles for me,” Macionis said. “He’s played middle two years. We had some injuries, and he was playing outside and moved to middle two years ago and did an excellent job. Last year, he was outside and played a little middle. Wherever I’ve needed him, there’s never a question asked, it’s just, OK. He’ll go and do it well.
”He’s one of our better servers. He had four aces today. He’s always very calm, cool and collected. Every once in a while, he’ll or someone will get a big kill and he’ll get emotional. Everyone follows him up with that.”
Register, who will play club volleyball at Princeton University next year, is back to his most comfortable spot as an outside hitter for the Pirates. He saw the make-up for a special team from the outset of the year.
”There are a lot of guys that have been on the team previous years,” Register said. “Danny, Avinash and I have been on for three years. We’ve all been on the team for a couple years at least. We kind of know what we all can do. We knew we were good enough to make states. That’s where we got our expectations from.”
The Pirates have met their expectations through a strong regular season that set them up for states. Though inexperienced in state play, WW-P South made a strong debut to extend its season.
”We need to play as six guys on the court all the time,” Macionis said. “They need to have that enthusiasm out there and be having a lot of fun and showing a lot of energy. If they start to play down, they have to push through that. Thursday, we have to push on all cylinders. We need to block a little better. They had 18 kills in the second game. We only lost 25-22. If they block a little better, we’ll definitely hang.”