Scotch Plains-Fanwood stood on the brink of sending Westfield home, eliminating their chance at their first Union County Tournament Championship in boys volleyball history. The Raiders had the serve on match point during the second set, a mere point away from victory. They sent the ball over the net, where it was received by the Blue Devils. They passed, set, and sent it back over the other side, but the referee blew his whistle. He raised his arm toward SPF’s side, signaling that they had earned a point. With that, Westfield had lost their first ever UCT championship, making history for the program even with a loss.
“Ultimately, it’s disappointing because we didn’t come away with the win. But I’m proud of the amount of work that the boys have put in this year and the ability that we’ve been able to compete with some of the best teams in the state,” said senior captain Logan Shepherd. Their run, despite this loss, made history for the young program. Westfield, the two seed in the tournament, had previously beaten seven seed Hillside and three seed Summit to advance to the finals against top-dog SPF.
“It feels really good,” said Sebastian Lorenzo, Shepherd’s fellow senior captain. “I mean, we made history and obviously being the captain on the frontier it’s a disappointing way to lose, especially when the sets weren’t that great in in gap, but I mean, they’re a really good team and so are we.” Westfield’s performance against SPF seemed less confident than their previous match against Summit, who they had already beaten two of two times this season. Confidence could be the factor, who they thought they could beat versus who they could not. Scotch Plains came into this game with an intimidating 26-1 record, only losing three sets over the entire year. “And we’re young, we were nervous for about two-thirds of the game, happens if you put a young team into their first time being in county finals, the nerves get to you,” head coach Ed Saggio added.
“Their outside hitter was dominating, the setter played a very good game,” Saggio said were the keys to SPF’s victory.
The Blue Devils will next host Glen Ridge this upcoming Tuesday at 4:30 PM, hoping to kick off their next stretch of games knowing they’ve made history for the program.
