Late in the third set when it seemed like all hope was lost for a Blue Devil victory a spark was lit on the court. As junior Brandon Genlot passed a dig to senior captain Sebastian Lorenzo who set the ball across the front line as junior Veer Agarwal jumped delivering a striking hit onto the Monroe court. This silenced the other side briefly, but even with this hit, Westfield fell short of Monroe losing the match, 2-1.
The first set started slowly for the Blue Devils. For every point they earned it seemed like Monroe was adding two to their score. Besides the dangerous hits from Monroe, they became a force early with constant heckling from their bench and stands starting after the first point.
Despite the early pressure, the Blue Devils did their best to answer. Large hits came from Agarwal and sophomore Ethan Cha upfront, and a great defensive effort came from sophomore Matthew Bonn trying to answer against a Monore attack.
As the Monroe cheers got louder Westfield was slowly closing in on their lead. A six-point lead quickly became a two-point lead with great rallies and defensive saves from Westfield. Monroe was forced to call a timeout as Westfield closed trailing 20-19. Westfield came out of the timeout firing, and they closed out the first set with a solid 25-20 victory.
The next two sets, however, would not end in Westfield triumph. The second set came with borrowed momentum from the early victory. Westfield was able to match Monroe point for point swapping the lead every few hits. Eventually Westfield trailed 10-9 after some solid upfront hits from Agarwal and missed cues on the defensive return.
This was the last time in the second set Monroe was in reach. Monroe went on a 5-0 run to pull ahead 15-9 and when Westfield was finally able to score Monroe added three more and Westfield needed a timeout as they fell behind by 8. Four more points for Monore before Agarwal was finally able to stop the momentum but it was too late as Monroe cruised through the second set with a 25-14 victory.
The third set would tell a very similar story. Both teams were fighting for every point with the match on the line, but Westfield seemed to be out of gas. Monroe was a solid opponent and completely dominated the third set from start to finish. Westfield had a great show of offensive attack as remarked by head coach Ed Saggio, “We attacked well and we served well. As you can see our passing fell apart and that was the difference of the game.”
Westfield’s passing was their major weakness, but when they did connect, their hits were almost never returned. However, with this game being so early in the season, coach Saggio and his players are optimistic that with improvement, this season can still be filled with victory. Cha thinks the team needs to mesh more before they can deliver their best performance: “I think we want to work on playing as a team. A lot of us are younger, sophomores and juniors, so we need to learn how to play as a team better.” And Agarwal expressed that with an inexperienced roster, they just need time before hitting their stride. “Almost our whole starting lineup was on JV last year, so we haven’t had a chance to connect with our other players.”
Westfield looks to come up with a win against Scotch Plains today at 4 p.m.. With an improvement in passing and the heightened rush that comes with this rivalry, the Blue Devils are ready to earn a victory.
