The volleyball whizzed past the stands after being smacked by sophomore outside hitter, Ava Gaspard. It was on path to hit the gym wall, 10 feet out of bounds, and it would have, had it not been traveling so fast.
The ball collided with the unfortunate Ridge player, as the ball rebounded off her head and out of bounds. With this disastrous Ridge error, Westfield went up 7-1 in the second set after winning the first set 25-17. They went on to win the second set 25-9 and took a commanding victory in the first round of the North 2, Group 4 Sectional Tournament.
The score of the first set certainly did not match the flow of the game, but as head coach Beverly Torok put it, “We were not in danger in the first set, we were in control.”
Numerous serves by senior Grace Kim failed to be returned and Westfield began to break away. The score read 17-8 in favor of Westfield. Ridge called for a timeout to kill the Blue Devils’ momentum.
The result of the timeout: ineffective.
The Blue Devils appeared to dominate every point, taking a massive 22-11 lead, but sloppy mistakes and rotational errors quickly plagued the one seed, seemingly keeping Ridge in the match and cutting Westfield’s lead to just six points.
It was clear, however, that the Blue Devils had this win in the bag. Their sidelines filled with laughter and smiles emphasized the confidence which they exuded in this match. It was evident that these girls were not worried about taking a loss. They quickly claimed the final two points of the set and were one set away from reaching the quarterfinals. Ridge, on the other hand, was one set away from the finish line of a very underwhelming season, coming into the match with an overall record of 2-20.
Senior middle blocker Karolina Bonn said, “We came in with a really tough attitude and were ready to fight for it.” She added, “I think we’re just ready to play as a team. We know we have to fight to the end, try to be resilient and just keep going.” And that they did.
The Blue Devils burst into the second set hot. Westfield played the first 10 points almost flawlessly, so when they let up a second point to make the score 9-2, Ridge’s bench erupted. They thought they had found a chink in Westfield’s armor. Westfield fought back.
The Blue Devils drove up the score. Their momentum was preserved with a diving save by senior Olivia Calandra after Westfield hit the ball into the net, and senior captain Chloe Weidman finished off the point, putting Westfield up 13-2. Weidman had an ace on the next serve.
Weidman’s and other Blue Devils’ serves were crucial to Westfield’s success in the second set. Torok said, “[In the] second set we tried to concentrate on serves, receive good perfect passes, and we served way better. In the second set, they had a lot of trouble handling our serves, which was why there was such a big deficit.”
It appeared that Ridge’s second point would be their last of the set until Westfield made a few questionable lineup changes after going up 15. However, it ended up being Kim, who had given up a series of errors by playing out of position in the front row, that finished the set with a kill in front of the net.
Cabrales noted the dominant second set performance, saying “We let them in a little bit and I think that in the second set we did a really good job of limiting our errors and just serving really aggressively and making sure that we sit on top the entire time.”
Westfield will go on to play Union City, the eight seed in the sectional tournament, on Tuesday. As the one seed in the tournament, Westfield is again expected to win, and to do that Torok said, “We’ll have to do a little research, and we will continue with our serve receive and our serving. And that is the secret of high school volleyball.”
