September 16, 2023
A limited schedule on Saturday but some really significant games were played with top teams in the state. The Southern Rams were the big winners in a quad against North Hunterdon, St. John Vianney, and host Williamstown. The Rams went undefeated today and added to their already impressive record to improve to 7-0 on the season. NJP’s #1 team looked the part as they didn’t lose a set all day. What an awesome day for 6′ middle blocker Jessica Smart. She slammed 13 kills, 8 of which came against Williamstown, and had 4 blocks in an afternoons work. Jordyn Hamlin was her usual sensational self slapping 30 kills and 5 aces on the day. Williamstown went 1-1, Vianney 1-2, and North Hunterdon was winless but had very close battles.
Princeton, Pinelands, and Madison had a tri-match and the Tigers won both of their contests to improve to 6-0. Naomi Lygas put on a show recording 17 kills against Madison and finished with 23 for the day. The sophomore is averaging 5+ kills per set this season. Kaelin Bobetich was the star vs. Pinelands racking up 7 kills, a block and 4 aces in the match.
Ferris hosted a quad with Hackensack, Passaic, and Bayonne. The Comets breezed through all three games and improved to 6-2 on the season. Bayonne, Ferris, and Passaic all managed to get one win on the day.
Roxbury is now 6-1 after downing Kearny in a close 2 set match. Their only loss this season coming at the hands of much improved NJAC rival Mendham.
Mackenzie Vellis and the Rutherford Bulldogs looked strong today downing Wood Ridge. Vellis led the winners with 8 kills and extended Rutherfords win streak to 3.
NJP would like to recognize Morris Tech for their fast start at 6-0. We also want to recognize the outstanding play of senior Molly Newton for her 57 kills and 11 blocks thus far.
The bad news is Morris Tech’s dig totals are 236 in 14 sets, an amount far exceeding the norm, bringing into question the method of recording stats in this area. Bergen Tech also has dig counts far out of the norm. We hate calling these out but we do feel a strong responsibility to bring better accuracy to stats in the state. We appreciated our interaction with Coach Rose from Jefferson today and the Falcons are being removed from the banned list after some adjustments. Our goal is to get every coach in NJ recording stats using the same defined methods. In today’s match, Barnegat had 16 kills, 2 blocks, and 23 aces in their 2 set win over Lower Cape May. That’s 41 of 50 points scored leaving just 9 possible errors for a team that was outscored 50-30. Is it possible… yes. But highly unlikely. We hate the role as stat police. But we are just looking for cooperation and education on proper recording of game statistics. For some teams, it certainly appears that serve receive is being counted in digs.
As we move toward our first computer ranking and player rater at the end of next week, we are trying to clean up as many errors as possible, so we appreciate your tolerance and understanding.