The girls volleyball season again centered around Marlboro High School. Head coach Margie McNamara’s Mustangs are firmly entrenched as one of the best programs in the Shore, and they maintained that status in 2015 thanks to Grace Kenningham and Teresa Dinh.
Marlboro went 16-7, finishing second to Wall High School in the Shore Conference A North Division and reaching the quarterfinals of the Shore Conference Tournament. The Mustangs advanced to the second round of the state tournament.
Kenningham was the dominant player in the Freehold Regional High School District (FRHSD) again. The senior carried the Mustangs to their fine season — both by her spirited play and leadership. She was a force at the net and had 276 kills this year (750 over her three-year career) and came up with 67 digs. She also won 79 service points.
Dinh, also a senior, broke the Marlboro school record for career assists by surpassing 1,000 with 367 this fall. McNamara retired at the end of the season having coached the Mustangs’ girls the last 10 years. She took the program to unimaginable heights, including multiple division titles and a Shore Conference Tournament championship in 2011 when they broke Southern Regional High School’s stranglehold on the tournament. Marlboro was back in the Shore Conference Tournament finals in 2012 and 2014, when they lost a great three-set match with St. John Vianney High School.
During her tenure, McNamara coached all-state standouts Jet Manzi, Haley Unger and Kenningham.
Colts Neck High School and Freehold High School were also postseason tournament participants.
Kenningham and Dinh head the News Transcript’s 2015 All-FRHSD Girls Volleyball Team. Completing the squad are Colts Neck’s Shannon Daly and Victoria Bruno, Freehold’s Sara Weiss and Marlboro’s Jessica Iacobellis.