After suffering a 49–40 loss in the North 2, Group 4 semifinals to No. 1 seed Bayonne, the No. 4 seed Westfield girls basketball team ended its impressive season with a 20-7 overall record and a 10-2 record in the UCC Watchung division.
Led by the three-headed monster of senior captains Sutton Factor, Paige Gorczyca and Annie Ryan, the Blue Devils earned their way into their fourth straight county championship. Other key contributors were junior starter Sara Rooney and sophomore starter Catie Carayannopoulos. With the departure of five seniors, the team will adjust to new faces, but expectations still remain high for the next season.
“We always want to be the best we can be. Whether that is having a winning season or just doing better than we thought based on the beginning of the season,” head coach Liz McKeon said.
The Blue Devils entered this season off the highest of all notes: Last year, they won the Group 4 state championship and notched 28 tallies in the win column. The most in program history. This year, Westfield responded to last year’s dominance with a tougher and more competitive schedule. Facing teams like St. John Vianney and Gill St. Bernard’s, both of which are perennial New Jersey girls basketball powerhouses, the Blue Devils feared no opponent.
“To have 20 wins out of the games we played—knocking off top teams in the state—we did everything that we could do,” McKeon said. “Unfortunately it did not end the way we wanted to, but not for a lack of trying or not being prepared.”
The Blue Devils were able to use these games against top opponents to only make them stronger. “Our schedule was tough this year,” Factor said. “Those were character-building games for us as a team.”
The Blue Devils kicked off their season with a rocky start as they dropped two of their first three games to Roselle Catholic, who beat Westfield for the first time since 2017, and New Providence, a consistent top girls basketball team in Union County.
Nevertheless, the Blue Devils were able to gather rhythm and hit their stride as they went on to win 9 out of their next 10 games. That lone loss was against St. John Vianney. The Lancers are currently undefeated with a record of 31-0.
Coming off of the loss against St. John Vianney, Westfield won its next seven games, including one against New Providence. Not only did the Blue Devils beat the Pioneers for the first time since 2020, but they won by 13 points, 61–48. Although it was just a conference game, this win meant a lot to the players, as defeating a rival normally does. “We prepared so much for that game and to beat them by more than 10 was an awesome experience,” Ryan said.
Following two losses in four games against Sparta and Randolph, both teams who won 22 or more games, Westfield continued its usual dominance. The Blue Devils went on to win six consecutive games and earned their way to yet another appearance in the Union County Tournament finals.
“Now after having a taste, we think we should be in the county final every year,” McKeon said.
In one of the most anticipated county final matchups in recent years, all eyes focused on Westfield as it aimed to seek vengeance after last year’s county final loss against the Pioneers.
But New Providence was able to prevail in the second half and came back to defeat Westfield to claim the county title. Most teams would hang their heads after a gut-wrenching loss like this, however, the Blue Devils held their heads high.
The No. 4 seeded Blue Devils breezed their way through the first two rounds of the sectional tournament, defeating their opponents by a combined margin of 70 points.
Westfield then traveled to top-seeded Bayonne for a sectional semifinal matchup. In the same game last year, Westfield came out on top. But the outcome was reversed this year, ending yet another historic Westfield season.
This season, filled with many ups and a few downs, will forever go down in Blue Devil history as Ryan hit the 1,000-point mark and finished her career with 1,022 points. In doing so, Ryan surpassed her coach and is now fifth on the all-time scoring list among Westfield girls basketball players.
Although hitting the 1,000-point mark is an impressive individual achievement, Ryan does not give herself all of the credit. Ryan said, “My individual achievements are all because of my teammates.”
As for Gorczyca, she finished her Blue Devil career with 951 points and set her game-high point total in the county semifinal game against Elizabeth with 29 points. Factor, the known stat-stuffer, tallied 508 career points, 349 rebounds and 254 assists.
“Paige, Annie and Sutton are going to be hard to replace for more than what they’ve done on the court,” said McKeon. “I don’t even think it’s about replacing them, I think it’s about just growing what they already put on the map. They have done a tremendous amount for this program.”
These three seniors all left their impact on and off the court and changed the entire Westfield girls basketball program for the better. A question on everyone’s minds revolves around how Westfield will be able to replace the graduating seniors. But, when you have a coach like McKeon and a fantastic group of graduating seniors, Westfield has established itself as a top program throughout Union County and should be able to maintain its success.
