The boys volleyball season ended on May 29 with a 2-1 loss against Livingston in the quarterfinal round of the Group 4 North NJSIAA Tournament, a season headlined by young talent and program-firsts. “We set some goals at the beginning,” said senior captain Logan Shepherd, “one of which was to reach the finals of the county tournament, which would have been the first in program history and we managed to accomplish that.”
The season began hot with a two-set win over Roselle Catholic, a match in which the Blue Devils outscored their opponents 50 to 14 over the two sets. Westfield then dropped two games against Monroe and Scotch Plains-Fanwood, but bounced back with two more wins over Summit and Roselle.
After a patchy start, the boys seemed to find their groove roughly halfway through the season. With 16 games down, they stood at an impressive 11-5. Westfield seemed to cool down going into the county tournament, as they lost 4 in a row preceding it, bringing them to 11-9.
In the Union County Tournament, the Blue Devils faced Hillside in the quarterfinals, beating them 2-0, and Summit in the semifinals. “Another one of our goals is to beat Summit. We’ve never done that before in program history, and we ended up beating them three times this year; home, away, and in the county tournament,” Shepherd added.
Overcoming Summit for the third time this season, they advanced to the finals, the first time they had done so in program history. However, their next opponent, SPF, would be tough to beat. SPF lost a total of 7 sets this season over their 32 games played, and lost two matches total. They beat Westfield for the UCT championship, and went on to make it to the state championship, which they lost to Cherry Hill West.
Westfield moved on to sectionals, where they won their first round against Union City 2-0, but lost against Livingston 2-1 in the quarterfinals, ending their season. Hopeful for the future of the program, Shepherd said, “We had a good run in states. We are a young squad, and we’re not losing too many seniors. I think the team is only going to get better and better. There’s a lot of talent.” Notable young stars on this Blue Devils roster include sophomore hitters Ben Bukiet-Beker, Ethan Cha, and Matthew Bonn, junior hitter Veer Agarwal and junior libero Brandon Genlot.
Fellow senior Chris Gonzalez added, “Honestly, it was a really impressive year. It was our first year for lots of things, you know, making the county finals almost taking a set because against Scotch Plains we haven’t even gotten close.”
“Our coach is retiring,” Gonzalez continued. “He kind of started the program and kind of built it up to what it is. Now he left it at a good point. And honestly, I mean, that’s just a good summary of the season this year. It’s a really good starting point for an actual competitive program. I can see us, you know, beating Scotch Plains in the future, winning county finals, maybe even like a run in states. And yeah, we have a young team and I think they should have a good following year.”
