Liz McKeon walked into the Kean University gymnasium one night late in October sporting a Westfield jacket and a distinctive accessory: her Group 4 state championship ring. McKeon, now in her ninth season as Westfield’s girls basketball head coach, was at Kean to watch the girls volleyball team compete for the Union County Tournament title.
McKeon passed through the gym doors and angled toward the front row of bleachers, where some of her basketball players were sitting. The players said hello.
Then they noticed the ring. Amusement. Good-natured teasing. Friendly laughs.
Even for all the ribbing, the girls see McKeon’s wearing of her ring for what it is. “She loves to wear the ring mostly because she’s proud of us and all the accomplishments we made as a team,” senior Paige Gorczyca says.
Those accomplishments are many. Last year, the team finished 28-6, broke into the nj.com top 20 for the first time under McKeon (Westfield finished the season ranked 13th), and captured Westfield’s first ever girls basketball Group 4 state championship. The victory, a colossal milestone for the program, established Westfield as a force in New Jersey girls basketball. So much so that McKeon says she has struggled to convince non-conference opponents to play Westfield—few teams want to face a reigning state champion.
Westfield will travel to Oak Knoll on Thursday at 4 p.m. to open the season. The Blue Devils appear to possess excellent prospects of summiting New Jersey again. But before embracing grand notions of trophies and rings, the Blue Devils will have to return to the minutiae.
Gone are Grace Klag and Chloe Kreusser, last year’s seniors. Klag now plays at Bucknell. Kreusser is at Emory. Their departures leave sizable holes to plug. Losing Klag, especially, is a blow. The center led Westfield in scoring and rebounding last year. “Definitely losing some height,” Gorczyca acknowledges.
But back is a senior core of five players, chief among them captains Sutton Factor, Annie Ryan and Gorczyca. That group possesses immense firepower.
Ryan knocked down 50 threes last season and is committed to Tufts. “She’s really developed her driving game as well,” McKeon notes. Factor, Westfield’s “coach on the floor,” as McKeon tells it, set a school single-season record in assists last year and led the team in steals. Gorzyca, a Stevens commit, is “all around,” McKeon says. “A lot of teams forget about her, and she makes them pay, and it’s great to watch.”
Ava Burke and Cara Van Allen round out the group of seniors. “The chemistry Sutton, Annie, Cara, Ava and I have is actually unmatchable,” Gorzyca says. “Like, it’s unmatched. It’s indescribable. We’ve been playing for so long. We just know each other on the court and off.”
One intangible advantage of rollicking all the way to a state title and then losing only two seniors? Experience. The team’s core remains intact, and the journey to a state title heaped valuable experience onto the players’ shoulders.
“Having a lot of veteran leaders on the team is gonna help us in close games a lot this year,” Factor says. “Obviously Coach McKeon’s a huge asset off the court, but on the court you need people to step up and bring the team together. So I think having people that are comfortable talking and leading others is gonna help us flourish.”
Other potential contributors include freshman Megan Logan, sophomore Catie Carayannopoulos and juniors Sara Rooney, Makenna Reed and Erin Doherty.
The conversation will always wend its way back to the trophies, of course, like a tributary meandering through backcountry before emptying into a larger body of water. The Blue Devils will take it one game at a time; the onlookers will speculate about bigger things to come.
Despite claiming statewide prestige last year with the state title, Westfield missed out on two more local achievements: the Watchung Division title and the Union County Tournament title.
New Providence outmaneuvered Westfield to snatch both. Now Westfield is gunning for revenge. The two teams will collide on Saturday, in Westfield’s home opener. Talk about a delicious early-season clash.
And then there is the matter of whether Westfield can repeat as Group 4 champion. Winning one state title requires a confluence of skill and teamwork. Two championships? Back to back? Try scaling a sheer cliff, then returning to the cliff a year later to repeat the feat—only this time carrying a backpack loaded with bricks. So, yeah. Tough. But far from impossible.
“I think we have a great chance,” McKeon says. With Westfield’s returning arsenal of talent, it’s tough to doubt it.
