Westfield’s bench was split.
Half of them screamed, “In,” while the other half screamed “Out,” as senior captain Caitlin Cabrales sprinted to the back corner of the court to save a perfectly placed shot by Rahway. The gymnasium erupted with the bench, everyone shouting, with no one in agreement.
Cabrales chose to not risk the point. Off balance, she made a dig that displayed her veteranship, sending the ball behind her where it met senior Olivia Calandra, who lofted it over the net for a Westfield point. This put Westfield up 15-4 in the first set and marked one of the only exciting sequences in a game awash with Rahway errors.
With a two set win over Rahway on their senior day, Westfield is moving on to the Union County Semifinals.
Westfield dominated from the first play. Rahway hit their first serve far out of bounds, and after Rahway tied the game up at 2-2, Westfield pulled away.
Senior Abbie Pevzner was a constant throughout the first set and the rest of the game, relentless with well-placed, violent kills. Each one seemed like an exact replica of the last, yet Rahway could do nothing about it, even after numerous time outs.
Pevzner continued to rack up kills even when up ten points because, “I think that when we’re all playing our best and we’re all just really energized, it gets us to do better. And it’s also just like a lot of fun.”
The first set ended 25-6 Westfield. Along with Pevzner’s kills, senior Carolina Bonn was a massive contributor with her non-stop blocks, and senior Giulliano Gallo and junior Libby Verga refused to lay off the gas pedal with their precise serves.
Going into the game, Head Coach Beverly Torok knew that Rahway “didn’t have as good of a serve receive as the teams [Westfield] had been playing,” and this proved to be true.
The second set began even more in Westfield’s favor than the first. In the blink of an eye, Westfield was up 8-2. Westfield forced many errors on Rahway with shots that were too powerful to return.
After Westfield accumulated 17 points in the second set, Rahway started to gain momentum, partially thanks to the referee. The crowd let out a collective gasp after the referee made a questionable call after the ball rolled off of senior Genna Gautheirs’s closed fist and over the net. This cut Westfield’s lead down to six. Westfield won the next point, but the referee made another questionable carry call on the point after that, eliciting an angry “What!” from many in the Westfield section of the stands.
Catching a lot of heat from the Westfield fans to her back, the referee gave the next point to Westfield with a close call out of bounds. Westfield only let up two more points in the second set, winning 25-14.
Senior captain Chloe Weidman was also a massive contributor to the game, albeit on the defensive side of the game. Weidman had the 500th dig of her career against Rahway in front of stands packed for senior day. Weidman said that achieving this milestone in front of seemingly half of Westfield was, “really exciting. I’m really proud of myself for the hard work I put in.”
Looking forward to Westfield’s county semifinal match against the winner of Kent Place vs Elizabeth, Torok stated that “we need to make sure our game is not a tie on top in order to take them,” for the next matchup will certainly be more challenging.
