It was deep in the second set, and Old Bridge led Westfield, 23-17. The Blue Devils, winners of the first set, seemed to have wilted before an Old Bridge onslaught. The specter of a decisive third set loomed.
Then it began. The comeback.
Roused from the dead in the blink of an eye, Westfield won one point. Then another. Then another, and another, and another, and another. Six in a row.
Old Bridge recovered to win the set, 27-25. But the momentum the Blue Devils gathered through the comeback helped them trounce the Knights in the third set and win the match, 27-25, 25-27, 25-14. Westfield took home its first ever Group 4 state title.
“It doesn’t feel real right now,” senior co-captain Allie DiFalco said. “We’re all just really excited, and I think it’s gonna set in later.”
Others were more succinct. “It feels amazing,” head coach Beverly Torok said. “Insane,” offered senior Ally Muller.
But on a night to end all nights for Westfield’s volleyball program, it was that roaring second-set comeback that irreversibly flipped the momentum.
Old Bridge melted like an ice cube left outside on a sweltering day. Westfield surged, buoyed by fiery screams and thunderous hits. The lead seesawed from 23-23, the Franklin High School gym transformed into a bubbling pit of tension as nerves frayed and the stands rattled.
Old Bridge squandered a chance to win the set. Westfield squandered a chance to win the match. The Knights eked it out, but the damage was done.
“Catching up to them after such a big lead helped us get energy for the third set,” DiFalco said.
Westfield clamped its jaws on the third set with the ferocity of an angry shark. The Blue Devils raced out to an early lead. It was 10-4 before anyone knew what had happened, and suddenly the Old Bridge players were staring wide-eyed at each other, shell-shocked.
The Knights crumbled like a sand castle struck by a wave. “They started struggling a little with their passing,” head coach Beverly Torok said, “and we made it happen.”
With the win, the Blue Devils ended the season 24-1, Union County Tournament champions, North 2, Group 4 sectional champions, and Group 4 state champions.
The Blue Devils did it together. “It’s a team effort,” Torok said. “That’s what made us succeed this year, is we had a varied attack.” Sophomore Catie Carayannopolous made crucial kills and blocks to bolster Westfield’s momentum, and Jess Currie and Ally Muller composed the other parts of a dominant front line.
While the Blue Devils fought on the court, another battle raged paces away. The Old Bridge student section was a purple wave that frothed the whole game. They chanted. They waved their arms. They lied on the floor and mimicked rowing a canoe.
Old Bridge, perhaps, won the battle in the stands. But Westfield won it on the court.
The first set was tight the whole way, the lead teetering on a knife’s edge. It came down to small adjustments and grit.
“We were hitting into their block a little bit,” Torok said. “We made some adjustments to find their holes.”
The scoreboard read 24-23 in favor of Old Bridge, and the Knights served with a chance to win the set and dramatically alter the course of the match. But the serve sailed long. Then, at 24-24, came a seemingly endless rally. Players lunged, dove, improvised. At the end of it all, the ball dropped on the Old Bridge side. Westfield failed to capitalize on the ensuing set point, but a moment later the Blue Devils took the set, 27-25, on an Old Bridge miscue.
Then came the rollercoaster of the second set, and the drubbing of the third set, and onto the court poured the Westfield bench to celebrate a title.
“We don’t want the season to end, obviously,” DiFalco said. “But it’s really good to end it on this note.”
By the time the trophy had been lifted and the requisite pictures snapped, there wasn’t a dry eye on the Westfield side.
