Tuesday, November 1, 2011

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

IHA's seniors (from left to right) Amanda Garabino, Emma Perazzo, Corina Dypko and Jessica Cervini, celebrated the Blue Eagles' 25-21, 25-23 sweep of Bogota in the Bergen County final on Monday night.

OLD TAPPAN – Immaculate Heart Academy is the Bergen County volleyball champion not because of its overwhelming strengths, but because of its complete lack of weaknesses in any phase of the game. The Blue Eagles passed better, hit better, returned serve better, limited their mistakes and forced Bogota into an uncharacteristic number of its own.

IHA also withstood every change of momentum and stood its ground late in both games on the way to a 25-21, 25-23 victory in the county final on Monday night at Northern Valley/Old Tappan High School.

“We told our girls that we had to be aggressive, but we also had to stay calm enough to be able to play our game,” said IHA co-head coach Mike DeCastro. “We gave them strategies on where to serve, where to hit and where they would be hitting, but at the end of the day it was up to our girls to execute and they did. We made sure that we were able to run the kind of game we wanted to regardless off what Bogota was trying to do.”

Bogota junior Julia Topor finished with a game-high 13 kills.

IHA got off to a fast start when Michelle Cruz, the Eagles' junior libero, opened the match with two straight aces and, despite nine ties, IHA trailed only one time in the entire first set and that was by just a single point at 19-18. The final tie came at 21, but then Cruz retreated behind the service line at the perfect time to help close out the first game. Her serves kept Bogota from getting into an offense in its return game and Jennifer Pagano banged one off a dig attempt to give the Eagles the lead for good at 22-21.

Jessica Cervini then won a point with a block to force a Bogota time out, but when the teams returned to the court a Bogota hitting error and then a wayward free ball that it sent over the net but long gave the Eagles a set point, which Cruz converted with an ace to put the Eagles up 1-0.

“We made too many errors, but they caused us to make errors. They are very well coached and they go for every ball and they know how to play the game,” said Bogota head coach Brad DiRupo. “You have to be on the top of your game to beat them. You can not miss five serves in the opening game and beat them. You can't it is not going to work like that, that is not reality.”

Larysa Iwaskiw had 6 kills as part of IHA's balanced attack.

Bogota (25-2), whose only two losses this season have come against IHA, got off to a better start in game when it won the first two points off the serve of Elise Brackett and took a 3-1 lead when Julia Topor hit one off the block for a 3-1 lead, but IHA was not about to let the Bucs pull away. The Eagles got even for the first time at 5 and took the lead for the first time at 8-7 on another Bogota hitting error. Two straight aces served by Amanda Garbarino pushed the lead to three points and a 5-0 run that included two more aces from Cruz had IHA comfortably in front a 14-8.

“We had a game plan and we really knew what we wanted to do against them, we just had to stick with it point after point,” said Pagano, IHA's junior middle blocker. “Bogota plays very good defense, but we just never gave up on points and we tried to find the holes. We tried to use our good defense and turn it into offense.”

IHA got to 20 when Larysa Iwaskiw found the line on a kill, but , trailing 21-16, Bogota made one last bid to push the match to a third game. Three straight points, two on IHA attack errors and the last on Topor's boomer off the block got the Bucs back to within 21-19 and forced an IHA time out. Topor then put one off the finger tips of the IHA block to get Bogota back to within 21-20 before Corina Dypko found an empty spot in the back with a free ball and Bogota shanked a return of serve to put IHA up 23-20.

Junior setter Rebecca Keleman finished with 20 assists for Bogota, which fell to 28-2 on the season.

But then two straight mistakes, a serve into the net and a swing that went over the end line, followed by a block at the net by Bogota's Brenda Curiel, tied the game at 23 and Bogota had Brackett, it best server, behind the line. IHA regrouped as Pagano pounded one off Bogota's single block and Iwaskiw went cross court on match point as the Blue Eagles closed out their second county championship in the last three years and did so without Nia Reed, the sophomore considered by many as the best hitter in the state. Reed will miss the rest of the season with a wrist injury, but IHA (26-1) is still considered the favorite to win the Tournament of Champions.

“It's a relief because it is such a tough tournament. Every round is a tough round, not just the finals,” said DeCastro, whose team was pushed to three sets by Pascack Valley in the quarterfinals before sweeping its way through the semifinals and final. “From the Round of 16 forward in the Bergen County Tournament is always tough and there is no such thing as an easy draw. To be able to win it and to be the last one standing at the end is a great accomplishment and it is a really great feeling.”

Pagano led IHA with 7 kills and Iwaskiw added six, while Bogota was led by the 13 kills from Topor and 10 from sophomore Carly O'Sullivan. Bogota, the defending Group 1 state champion and a semifinalist in the T of C last fall, fell just short of winning its first ever Bergen County title, but has no time to feel sorry for itself as the state tournament starts today and from here on out it is one and done for every team in New Jersey.

“If we lose [on Tuesday] we are done and that is the bad part of playing today instead of [on Sunday, the original date of the final]. Win or lose we could have had a day to get back in the swing of things,” said DiRupo. “What can we take from this [loss]? Nothing.”

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