Senior captain Sebastian Lorenzo lofted the ball a few feet above the net, perfectly setting up one of Westfield’s hitters for the killshot. Fellow captain and senior Logan Shepherd rose to meet the ball, hitting it just above the outstretched hands of Summit’s blockers and slamming it down in open space. With Shepherd’s kill, Westfield won the third set of the match, 25-18, taking two of three sets and winning the match overall. All three sets had been very close; Westfield won the first, 25-22, but dropped the second to Summit, 25-21.
With this win, Westfield advances to 8-5, and they are just past the halfway mark of the season. They also snapped Summit’s five-game win streak, putting them at 9-6 on the season with 2 losses now to Westfield.
The Blue Devils seemed to work very well with each other, contrary to some mishaps that were present earlier in the season. Lorenzo had connected with his teammates all game, consistently placing sets right where they were needed. He had all of the Blue Devils’ assists—24 total—distributing them to Westfield hitters such as sophomore Ben Bukiet-Beker, junior Veer Agarwal and Shepherd. Shepherd’s final kill, assisted by Lorenzo, was the product of a designed play practiced often. Lorenzo said, “It all happens in practice. We practiced that gap set maybe 100 times yesterday. Just trying to nail it down… I make the ball hittable and he kills it. Simple as that.”
Shepherd added to this with a comment on their chemistry. “Yeah, I mean, for me and [Sebastian] it’s just natural, you know, we’ve been playing volleyball on the same team for three years. We played at the same club together, and just having that connection allows us to really overpower the opponents and offers us a profile that other teams don’t have.”
The key to Westfield’s victory over Summit was their offense. Through their serves and hitting, they were able to overpower Summit’s defense. As head coach Ed Saggio mentioned, they had to focus on “serving tough, hitting hard, as they’ve had trouble blocking on the outside.”
For their next match, the Blue Devils will face Hillside away at 4:00 p.m. on Friday.
