The score read 23-21 in the second set of the Union County Tournament finals. Westfield had already lost the first set and there was only one thing head coach William Leonard could do to stop the approaching end. With it being Scotch Plains-Fanwood’s serve, he called a timeout. A minute passed and SPF outside hitter Daniel Ennis stepped up to the endline. He served and the Westfield defenders weren’t ready. A shank from the passers bumped the Raiders’ score up to 24-21.
“Our communication was lacking. Every time we made a mistake we wouldn’t move on from it and that cost us because it would build up, and we would just keep making more and more mistakes, and get deeper and deeper in our heads,” said junior quad-captain Ethan Cha.
However, a missed serve from SPF allowed the Blue Devils no time to dwell on past errors. Now, with the score reading 22-24, Westfield needed to stay composed.
Leonard said, “We have had big comebacks and we are no stranger to having our back against the wall, but they prevail time and time again. It’s close but these guys do a really good job at just hanging in there, executing the game plan and doing what they do best. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.”
Now, junior Ben Buckiet-Becker walked to the line. With a short float serve, the resulting SPF overpass was the perfect opportunity for senior Veer Agarwal to flaunt a 10-foot hit. The powerful bounce counted his 10th kill of the match, pushing Westfield closer, 23-24. Buckiet-Becker served once more and SPF was able to set up their outside hitter, but Agarwal pummeled their attempt to the ground with a monster block.
This was a calculated strategy and an adjustment from the first set. “We changed our rotations a little bit,” said Agarwal. “So, I was matched up with one of their middles and one of their outsides.”
Hope gleaned from Westfield’s eyes. Both teams went point-for-point off of missed serves, but with Westfield missing another serve, SPF only needed one point, 26-25. And with a tight pass and error from the Blue Devils, the game ended in heartbreak.
For the seventh year in a row, the Raiders won the UCT Championship, but not without a fight from the Blue Devils.
The first set saw Westfield struggling to find their rhythm. Despite moments of high-level play, a few missed opportunities proved costly. “I think we played pretty well, especially in the second set, but there were just a couple of unlucky balls that we lost,” said Agarwal.
There was dedication in the first set, but missed serves challenged the Blue Devils’ consistency. Although the first set was at first a back-and-forth battle, an SPF surge pushed them to a 25-19 win.
Even with defeat, the Blue Devils have learned much from this game. “We just made one more mistake than they did and that’s all it comes down to,” said Leonard. “I said to these guys after, if we don’t believe at this point, what more do we need to see…It really comes down to them not hanging their heads and feeling bad about the way we played today. We had a great game. Just a couple of points here and there.”
Now, in preparation for the sectional and group tournaments, the Blue Devils will “go crazy in practice” and do whatever they can “to work on and to fix what happened today so next time we face them it will be the opposite outcome,” said Cha.
Westfield will next face Woodbridge at 4 p.m. on May 20 at WHS.
