Southern
may lack the star power of its teams from the recent past, but with
every player on the court making contributions, the Rams will return to
the Group IV semifinals after a two-game win over Westfield.
STAFFORD
�?? Minus its two best players from a year ago �?? Felicia Marmo and
Janelle Murdock �?? along with the proliferation of programs around the
Shore Conference, conventional thinking had it that this was the year
Southern volleyball was supposed to take a step back toward the pack.
Senior
setter Carly Kurica had her own theory on exactly that after Southern
advanced to the Group IV semifinals for the second time in school
history with a 27-25, 25-20 win over Westfield at home on Tuesday. The
fourth-seeded Rams, who lost to Immaculate Heart in the 2004
semifinals, will face Hunterdon Central, the No. 1 seed in a Thursday
semifinal at South Brunswick.
�??I
think if we had Marmo and Murdock we might not have won,�?� Kurica said.
�??We relied on them too much whenever we got in a tough spot. Now, we
don�??t care if it�??s (state power) Bridgewater-Raritan or (Shore rival)
Manchester, we play every point against every team the same way.�?�
With
a rotation that head coach Eric Maxwell extends to include 10 players,
the Rams cannot pinpoint one hero from Tuesday�??s win. It was up to
Westfield who got to shine for Southern as four Rams (Meagan Taege,
Lauren Gleason, Pam Tamowski and Kurica) garnered at least six digs,
keeping with the defensive theme of the team�??s season.
When
a little offense was needed, senior outside hitter Meagan Taege usually
stepped up with one of her nine kills, while the biggest point of the
match may have been delivered by Kristen Hamilton.
The
Rams had jumped all over the Blue Devils from the start, running out to
a 19-9 lead in the first game. Yet after a Southern player was
controversially given a yellow card for taunting after an Ashley
Gesicki block made it 21-13, Westfield went on an 11-2 run to reach
game point. Hamilton calmly hammered a spike down the line to tie the
score, allowing Southern to take the game behind a diving Taege dig on
its first game point.
�??When
you lose a big lead like that, I felt like all the gas was out of our
tank,�?� Maxwell said. �??We took a timeout (at 23-24), and we looked
beaten in the huddle. I just told them to think about hitting your best
shot, and Kristen was able to come up with the big play.�?�
�??Most
of the points they scored there were pretty decent shots,�?� Kurica (13
assists, 8 digs, 3 kills) said. �??In practice we�??ll play the jayvee and
start with the score at 15-20 and Coach Maxwell will make a bad call to
see how we react. We let them rack off four or five points after that
yellow card. We�??ve worked on coming back from something like that more
quickly.�?�
It
helps that the players left from last year�??s squad, which fell in the
quarterfinal round to Cherokee after winning the first game, have
banded together to forge a semifinal run out of spare parts.
�??Not
that it was negativity, but it turned out to be motivation that people
didn�??t think we�??d be as good without Felicia and Janelle,�?� Gesicki
said. �??Last year we tried to get Felicia to pass every ball, Carly to
set every ball and Janelle to spike every ball. We have a lot of
different options this year.�?�
Gesicki
finished with six blocks in the match, including one that broke an
11-all tie in the second game. The Rams never trailed again in the
match, with Taege notching the kill off a Lauren Gleason dig at match
point.
�??Right
from the beginning of the season this team was built on defense,�?�
Maxwell said. �??I knew we needed to keep the ball alive. I told them
that I don�??t think the other teams can put the ball down on us 25
times.�?�
Westfield
went down trying, with libero Anna Kohler repeatedly feeding outside
hitter Erin Roudebush for big spikes. The Rams, however, were able to
send back their share of shots.
�??We
worked on all of our angle play,�?� Maxwell said. �??We knew she
(Roudebush) liked to hit angle. And we served at her. We knew if she
was not passing well, she would not play a good all-around game.
�??I
couldn�??t have asked the girls to play any better. It was definitely our
best performance of the year, and in a pressure situation. As a coach,
you couldn�??t ask for anything more.�?�