After a tight 25-19 win in the first set, Westfield came out somewhat complacent to begin the second set. Playing against Linden, the Blue Devils were down 6-12 to start the second set, forcing a timeout by head coach William Leonard. This timeout would serve as a pivotal moment, changing the outcome of the match. Westfield came out of this timeout firing, returning to the team that had proved to be in the first set.
Leonard said, “You don’t want to go down that much but it’s somewhere that we’ve been before and that’s not because we’re not a good team. We’re playing good competition. We know that if we play our best volleyball we can erase any lead ahead of us. We just wanted to focus on the next point, winning that point, turning it around and doing what we do best, in the service lines and taking care of the offensive end of the game too.”
Senior quad-captain, Kueijiro Tanaka said, “I just wanted everyone to communicate more, try to make the environment more happy. Everyone was down so I tried to make everyone else in the same mood.” This encouragement would allow for Westfield to fight back, making the score 13-15, and forcing a Linden timeout. Despite the attempted regrouping by the Tigers, Westfield went on to tie up the set, and ultimately win 25-20.
Tanaka added seven assists and five digs in this dominant 2-0 win. Tanaka said, “After the time out, our communication and passing was better. In the first set our passing was better, our setting was good, and then we terminated the ball. We kind of lost that in the start of the second set, so we got that back.”
Many different aspects went well for the Blue Devils, but serving stood out in this matchup. Leonard said, “We talk a lot about serving, and I think that was our bread and butter today. We served a really good game. We put a lot of pressure on them in that sense and our serve received looked really strong too.”
Junior quad-captain, Matthew Bonn agreed with this, echoing the importance of serving and passing. Bonn said, “We had a really strong serving and passing day, so we came out on top.” Bonn contributed five digs and five service points, proving the strength in Westfield’s serving.
Junior Benjamin Bukiet-Beker had an impressive stat line with three kills, two blocks, six digs, one assist and eight service points.
Looking ahead, the Blue Devils will face Scotch Plains-Fanwood tomorrow, April 11, away at 5:30pm. Off the court, Bonn said, “Bringing it together after each point and congratulating each other after we score and good sets and passes will be important.” On the court, Tanaka said, “If we lose, it’s mostly because our passing and then setting is off. If we get the ball up, we will be good.” For the rest of the season, Leonard said, “We have to work on some little things and clean up our play but I think we looked really good today. We are excited to come back to practice tomorrow, work, and get better.”
