Saturday,
October 31, 2015
By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer
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Natalie Alechko was a big part of Old Tappan's advantage at the net as it swept rival Demarest in the semifinals of the Bergen County Tournament. |
OLD TAPPAN – The rivalry between sister schools Northern Valley/Old Tappan and Northern Valley/Demarest runs deep. The players know each other well, the head coaches are close friends, and each one knows what system the other is trying to run. With a berth in the Bergen County final on the line when they met last night, it all came down to execution.
Old Tappan has been the No. 1 team in both Bergen County and New Jersey all season long and the latest edition of the state’s best volleyball rivalry was another example of why the Golden Knights are where they are. By executing its offense crisply, Old Tappan set the tone right from the opening point.
The top-seeded Golden Knights opened the match on an 11-2 run and used their big size advantage to control the net throughout in a 25-12, 25-16 semifinal win over No. 5 seed Northern Valley/Demarest to advance to the Bergen County final.
“We saw what Demarest did against Paramus the other night and that really helped us mentally going into this match,” said Northern Valley/Old Tappan head coach Melissa Landeck. “That wake-up call the other night both in our match and in theirs definitely benefited us tonight.”
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Veronica Corcoran had six kills for Demarest, which fell to 16-4 on the season. |
Four different players had kills during the match-opening run capped by a thunderous one from Natalie Alechko for an 11-2 lead. Demarest’s Veronica Corcoran ripped a kill down the line to slice the lead to five, but the Golden Knights answered right back with a 6-1 spurt to seize control and take game No. 1.
“I thought we got in a good flow early and we were consistent,” added Landeck. “When you can pile up the good, positive plays then you get on a roll. I thought we did that well tonight and Kelly (Brogan) did a great job of spreading around the ball and getting all of our hitters involved.”
The Golden Knights knew that their archrival was going to make a run at some point and they did so during the second game to keep it close for most of the way. The Norsewomen, who made a miraculous comeback from being down a game and in a 14-6 hole in the second set to beat Paramus in the quarterfinals, twice had two-point leads but eventually fell apart against the big front line of Old Tappan, which often had size advantages of five inches or more at all three front court spots.
Julia Passante and Alechko had back-to-back kills that gave Old Tappan the lead for good. The Golden Knights scored 11 of the final 14 points to advance to the Bergen County final for the first time since when they last won the title in 2010.
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Kelly Brogan handed out 29 assists for Old Tappan, which will play IHA for the county title on Sunday. |
Alechko led all players with 12 kills for Northern Valley/Old Tappan (18-0). Setter Kelly Brogan used all of her weapons on her way to 29 assists. Erika Calabrese had a solid performance with seven kills. Kirsten Kaiser and Passante each added five kills with freshman Kelly Chin recording a team-high eight digs.
Victoria Corcoran had 11 assists with six of those going to her sister Veronica for Northern Valley/Demarest (16-4).
After winning via two-game sweep just over three weeks ago, the Golden Knights get another shot at the state’s most dominant team over the past decade and two-time defending Bergen County champion, Immaculate Heart Academy.
“IHA is a great team and we know we’ll have to play our very best to beat them,” said Alechko. “It will be the same thing like tonight where they know a lot of our players and we know them. Mistakes are going to be made on both sides but we have to keep fighting for every point. As long as we stick together as a team and have each other’s backs we’ll be ok. In a match like that, you have to keep your focus on just playing one point at a time.”
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