MONTVALE - River Dell held off a furious rally by Pascack Hills in the third set to come away with a 2-1 (26-24, 21-25, 25-20) victory in a tightly contested volleyball match on Wednesday night.
“We all work so hard together and our bench and the encouragement from our JV was so great,” said River Dell junior middle blocker Cassidy Collins, who led all scorers with 10 kills and 3 blocks. “We all just really wanted it and we all worked together.”
The Hawks jumped out to a 9-1 lead in the final set but the Broncos slowly chipped away thanks to a couple of kills and a block by senior Gianna Juliano and a five-point service run by senior libero Kasey Feheley-Shell which trimmed the River Dell lead to 18-17.
But a pair of Hills’ attack errors and a service ace by Collins boosted the lead back to 21-17. The Broncos rallied again to get to 21-20 on a Hawks attack error, a block by Hills freshman Isla Lundgren and a service ace by Hills freshman Sophia Kelly, but the Hawks closed out the match thanks to two errors by the Broncos and a pair of kills by freshman Marissa Petrocelli.
“We have a bunch of seniors and five juniors and a bunch of underclassmen,” said Collins. “Marissa Petrocelli is a great addition to the team - she works very hard. Avery Richardson, a sophomore, is very dedicated - she loves to learn - and [sophomore setter] Aylsia Orellana came in and it’s so hard to come in as a setter and connect with the players you don’t normally work with. I think we have to give a lot of kudos to them because they really helped us.”
The first set got off to a slow start as the two teams had trouble with attack errors and missed serves, two things that plagued them throughout the entire match. Each team finished with 5 attack errors and the Hawks missed 8 serves while the Broncos had 3 service errors in that first set.
“When looking at the stats, it was more basic fundamentals that we struggled with,” said River Dell coach Dianne Furusawa. “Not to make excuses but my other setter (senior Nora Posadas) isn’t here [so] I did things differently. Nora sets and hits right-side when she is in the front court. She is a lefty and has a very good serve.”
Because of all the errors on both sides the set was close to the very end. Sophomore setter Alysia Orellana broke a 23-23 with a kill but an errant serve tied the set, 24-24. Collins blasted a kill to give the Hawks a set point and then she served an ace to give River Dell a 1-0 lead.
Pascack Hills rallied to take the second set, 25-21. They took an early lead but the Hawks stayed close and managed to tie the game at 19-all. But the Broncos tallied 6 of the next 8 points to take the set, 25-21, and tie the match 1-1.
“The kid I use mostly in the middle (junior Elizabeth MacRae) wasn’t here today.” Furusawa said. “She and sophomore Avery Richardson have been sharing the position so that did make a difference. But the other kids had gotten [game] time [experience] but not at this level. We are usually a very strong serving team and we missed 15 serves. And we had 21 unforced hitting errors.
“I changed the serve-receive in the second set which didn't help us. In the third set I went back to what we had been doing in previous matches. It was a lot of [changing on the fly] and we got the ‘W.’”
So River Dell escaped with the win and improved its record to 4-0. Hills fell to 1-3.
“I think we work together really well,” said Collins. “There were a few changes we had to make because certain players weren’t here. But I think we did really well adjusting and making sure everyone kept their heads up.”
In addition to Collins’ offensive contributions she also had 4 digs and 5 service aces. Junior Madison Pastore scooped 21 digs, Petrocelli contributed 9 kills, senior setter Addison Viscardi added 4 digs and dished 22 assists, Orellana had 3 digs and 10 assists, junior Cara Lee chipped in with 4 kills and 8 digs and sophomore Avery Richardson had 4 kills. In all seven different players scored at least one point.
“I think we all adjust very well and our setters work so hard,” said Collins. “We have a diverse offense and defense as well. We have hitters in the back court and hitters in the front court and we’re working hard to put the ball in the best spot and help our team get to the best position in order to score.”
TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS STORY PLEASE VISIT 4-FeetGrafix.com.
