Volleyball-Week 3 & MCT

Morris County - Week #3 (plus) – MCT Preview

• By Coach Carchietta – http://www.mchss.net/
• Monday, September 23 – Saturday, October 3, 2007

The Star Ledger Coverage: Many people have been complaining about the lack of coverage this year. I hope you understand that every sport is facing the same dilemma that you are. Coaches are frustrated that they cannot use the computer system. They have been old not to call. They have been to email results, which may not always be possible until well after deadline. I have seen the cry, in many sports, to boycott the Ledger. This was an idea that I pushed 3 years ago when the Ledger went from a normal block of results to “Tennis” Results. I had spoke with the editor and he believed that more names are getting in. Which I actually agree with, what other sport (besides tennis) gets every kids name in? I am sure that you have seen the coaches that list every player, even the kid with 1 dig. I know that you miss Joey Batts. He was definitely a champion for volleyball in the Media. In all honesty, he was limited to maybe one big article a week, so I really think that if you are complaining about coverage, you really should just ask the record & Ledger for one article a week. The Daily Record does not have a main volleyball person any longer, but I have it on good authority that they are looking for another writer to fill the void. But I think that the guest appearance by Sandy Seegers was a fantastic bonus for the volleyball community! In summary, The Ledger will have a nice system, once it is up and running the way it should be. In my opinion, it should have been fixed in mid-September. They know that they get over 14,000,000 hits a month from HS Sports. If you want to boycott … fine … but a volleyball boycott will not help, it will only hurt. If you want to boycott, get everyone to boycott for a week -- all sports! That will send a message. The ball is in your court. I want more coverage for every kid. I am very happy to work with an paper, all they have to do is ask. Note: I do find it funny that scores are posted twice in the Volleyball results on a daily basis. I also know that some coaches will not email the Ledger and have become completely frustrated with supplying The Ledger info.

• Monday: Kinnelon fell to 4-6 with a loss to (now a state power) Science in two. I have had an opportunity to watch the Science Volleyball program build from the ground up. When I first began coaching volleyball in 1999, Science and WP were at the same level. The people at Science have dedicated their time and efforts to their kids in all the right ways and it has paid off. That is one success story for all to admire; Madison @ Lakeland; Montville up’d their record to 6-1 with a victory over Passaic Valley. Michele Braden supplied 5 kills to help the Mustangs win in an impressive fashion, 25-15; 25-19. Morris catholic won a grueling 2-0 battle with CHC-foe Montclair Immaculate. I can tell you that the Immaculate gym, much like the Lacordaire gym, is a huge advantage for the Lions, no matter what their record. Whippany took a game from a strong MKA squad in a 2-1 loss. Head MKA coach Mike Tully has really improved that program overnight and over the past three season, the Cougars have been a solid contender. St. Elizabeth’s faced Caldwell and fell to 2-5. Just take note of their record now. Morristown fell to West Essex.
  The game of the day: Mendham defeats Livingston in two. This is how you rebound from a hurtful defeat at Chatham. The Minutemen handed the Lancers their first loss of the season with a 2-0 victory (25-18, 25-17). Jen Scala (6 kills) and Megan Lynch (7 kills) were solid en route to victory.

• Tuesday: West Morris took Roxbury in two and improved to 5-2. Chatham continues their solid play with a two game win over Par Hills. Timothy Christian is a Moris County school. They defeated Wardrdlaw-Hartridge in three and are now 1-2 on the season. Ironically, they only seem to enter Morris County events in track, a sports which they have a few top rated runners. Hanover fell to 1-6 with a loss to West Essex, again, note this record. Randolph
  Game of the Day: Mt. Olive’s run continued with a taxing match against Parsippany on the road; 25-21 and 39-37. Coach Titus from Parsippany described the marathon as, “Simply Insane. Both teams played extremely well. It was just a shame that one of them had to lose.” Mosher was strong with 8 kills, but it was Hannan Ensel’s serving that frustrated the Red Hawks. The senior tallied 7 aces. “Titus added, “Ensel just rallied off to many service points. She easily has the best high school girl's serve I've seen in some years of coaching.” Nicole Muller knocked down 8 kills with 10 digs. A few impressive states for the Red Hawks in defeat:
  Parsippany
• OH, Holder: 1 ace, 13 kills, 2 blocks, 13 digs
• L, Loaiza: 1 kill, 1 assist, 18 digs
• S, Mendoza: 1 ace, 1 kill, 1 block, 17 assists, digs
• S, Mest: 2 aces, 4 kills, 1 block, 9 assists, 5 digs

• Wednesday: Randolph improved to 4-3 with a two game victory over Pope John. The Rams took both games 25-21. I have received an email mentioning that I may want to consider Pope John for my top 10, but they are a Sussex County team and do not qualify for consideration. Mendham and Mt. Olive went three. With the Marauders taking the first game 25-22, Mendham had to fight back and grab the final two. St. Elizabeth’s took Madison in two and improved to 3-5. West Morris was pounding in the first game against Bridgewater-Raritan, but regrouped and took the final two games 25-17, and 25-17. This was a definite highlight of the Highlanders season thus far. Verona took Whippany Park, as the Wildcats fell to 2-5. Caldwell beat Montville. Kinnelon beat Arts.
  

• Thursday: In case you did not notice (and this needs to be mentioned), The Star Ledger gave Volleyball their won headlines. That is a big step in the right direction for what the volleyball community wants. Unfortunately, many of the scores were reversed, confusing the heck out of me. We need o start with Whippany Park’s win over University. The third victory of the year for the Wildcats came on an exciting 26-24 victory in the second game. Heather Conway was strong for the cats with 3 kills. Mt. Olive improved to 6-3 with a win over Summit. West Morris defeated Randolph. I was at the Knolls match with Parsippany. Parsippany jumped to leads in both games one and two, but Knolls executed to perfection there after and took both games. The scores did not indicate that the game was much more competitive than the scores showed.
• The Game of Day: Chatham was dominate in victory in a much anticipated IHC-battle with Mendham, Sandy Seeger covered the game. You can read the excellent article at the dailyrecord.com.
  

• Friday: You can call it a run … Whippany Park is back in the post-season hunt, improving to 4-5. St. Elizabeth’s improved to 4-5 and upset Montville in two. The mustangs fell to 6-3. Chatham remained undefeated knocking off Morris Knolls in two and keeping the Eagles under 20 in both. Just a note, Livingston picked up a game against Group 1 contender Science. The Lancers, were impressive in victory as both teams ended the day with 7-1 records. These pick up games are a must for the smaller schools if they want to survive in the states against the powers from Bergen County. Many larger schools feel they have nothing to gain by playing a small school. Kudos to Livingston for grabbing the game. It’s even more impressive that they are playing the game the night before their tournament. On another note, MKA is now 8-0 and defeated University in two.

• Saturday: West Morris participated in the Livingston Invitational. Hanover Park is now 3-6 after defeating Morristown. St. E’s dropped the first game to Newark Academy, but took the second two rather easily. Mt. Olive was the story on Saturday. The Marauders took home two wins from “neighboring” Hackettstown and New Brunswick. Mt. Olive’s first win over New Brunswick gave coach Clowers his 100th victory. You can see the highlight on my site.

• Monday: The Ledger came out with the Volleyball capsule. Chatham standout Marika Racibarskas was the “Player of the Week.” Congratulations! Chatham was ranked #3, Caldwell #12 and Livingston #19. I know the latter two are Essex, but we (Morris teams) play them in conference, so well noted. Chatham is ranked #1 in Group 2 and West Morris is at #9 in Group 3. Mendham comes in at #9 in Group 2. There are no ranking by county.

• Tuesday: Seeding day – we’ll get to that last … Montville took out Whippany and ended the Wildcats winning streak. Par Hills fell to West Essex.

I would first like to add that seeds are only to set up the tournament. Some people take pride in their seeds and get very upset on the number attached to their school name. This is a big mistake! Count Tournaments are won and lost on match-ups. Granted West Morris is the only team to have won the MCT, but people get too caught up in the number.

The Seeds:

1-Chatham: Easily the number 1 seed. Undefeated and never in doubt. It does not matter that West Morris came in with three losses to out-of-county/conference teams, coaches reward undefeated teams and deservingly so. Also, I like the match-ups as Mendham and West Morris are in the bottom bracket. A true reward for coming in undefeated. The Cougars will play the winner of Morris Catholic and Morristown. I have the utmost respect for the Morris catholic team. I was curious if they were going to enter this tournament and I am very glad they did. ALL MORRIS COUNTY TEAMS SHOULD ENTER NO MATTER WHAT!

2-West Morris – gets the #2 and deservingly so. Their win over Mendham secured this seed and the county coaches were smart enough to respect the out-of-schedule of the Highlanders. West Morris will play #15

3-Mendham – Another easy choice for #3. As long as they remember that a loss is just a loss 25-23 or 25-8, it still counts as 0-1. Nothing worse. Not only that, it’s the past and a game to be learned from. The Minutemen host Par Hills in the 1st round.

4-Mt. Olive – The Coaches rewarded Mt. Olive for their record. This gives Mt. Olive two home games if they get past Hanover Park.

5-Morris Knolls – Could have easily swapped seeds with Mt. Olive. Knolls hosts Whippany Park. This is one time where although Knolls should have been 4, and Mt. Olive 5, it all works out because I feel that Hanover should have been 12 and Whippany 13. Whippany has pulled upsets twice in the past two years in the MCT.

6-Montville – The Mustangs were in great shape to be a 4, but ended up at 6. Two losses could have easily dropped the Mustangs lower, but this is where they should be with the record they came in with. They will host Madison. Montville was upset last year by Whippany Park, I believe it was only the 8/9 game, but still an upset by seed numbers.

7-Kinnelon – Kinnelon, on the other hand was victim, two years ago to the biggest upset in Morris County Volleyball History when the #4 Colts fell to the #13 Wildcats of Whippany Park. The Colts drew a dangerous Parsippany team and will have to battle not to be upset again. This is definitely the marquee match-up of the round.

8-Randolph – The Rams come in at 8 and have been playing an inconsistent game. St. Elizabeth’s (who I cannot recall if they have entered the tournament last year and/or before). St. Elizabeth’s is playing well, dominating Madison and knocking off Montville. The Rams need to be ready and not over look the 9-seed.

Predictions: Since home court is a huge advantage, all home teams will advance with the exception of Kinnelon. The Colts are very well coached an d the Red Hawks maybe slumping, but look for the Red Hawks to make a move in the second half.

My comments: I believe, and I maybe wrong, but I think 17 ties the record for most teams entered. Morristown-Beard, Jefferson, Morris County Tech have did not and that is a shame. Jefferson entered the Boys soccer tournament, but not the girls. Jefferson Boys were 1-6 or 1-7, but still entered and I very much respect that. Morristown-Beard never enters the MCT in Volleyball. Although I have seen them in the girls basketball tournament. I sincerely wish here was some rule that stated if you do not enter, you cannot enter for for two more years. I seriously wonder if these teams were 7-3 or just really good, would they be in the tournament?

In a preview review, I posted an email from a loyal reader. I was lucky enough to receive more insightful information from the unknown njo poster, so I will gladly share the educated analysis with you:
Clearly

• Chatham is the team to beat. They have an excellent setter , very good outside and good middle and libero. The only issue for Chatham is their depth, but should not be a problem. They beat Mendham handily at their court and won the Bloomfield tournament, but I don’t think they have been severely tested. Still should not be a problem
• WMC is a young inconsistent team. Played well at home vs Mendham and away versus Bridgewater, but struggled against Livingston, Wayne Valley and Hunterdon Central. They played well in the Paramus tournament, not so great in the Livingston… it will be interesting what team shows up.
• Mendham is also a young and inexperienced team. They have a dominant outside hitter, but 2 new inexperienced setters. They lost 2 matches in big games (Chatham and WMC); however, have excellent wins against Livingston, Westfield and Voorhees. The next in season matches against WMC and Chatham will be at home and should be much tighter. They made it to the silver finals at the Paramus tournament and the gold bracket in the Livingston tournament. I think it will be an interesting semi-final between WMC and Mendham
• Seeds 4- 6 (Mt Olive, Morris Knolls and Montville) are all somewhat interchangeable. Montville has the same record as Mt. Olive, but probably has played the weaker schedule. Mt. Olive has strong potential, but has been up and down (lose to Randolph, beat Parsippany, took Mendham to 3 games)…. Morris Knolls is always a tough game. I believe the best quarterfinal game will be Mt. Olive and Morris Knolls.
• The Kinnelon/Parsippany match should be the best of the first round. Parsippany has 2-3 solid players, but not much depth… Kinnelon has some solid OHs and is always a wild card in the tournament
• It is great to see a play-in game, Morris County volleyball is getting better and more respected