Pass. Set. Hit. Block. Repeat. Westfield and Millburn exchanged acrobatic plays to keep the ball from reaching the court. Parents screamed and teammates cheered as the rally extended, pushing each team to their athletic limits. Senior Abby Pevzner delivered a strong hit, but Millburn was able to make a diving dig, extending the point and eventually winning it, making the score 20-22, Westfield trailing. The Millburn faithful erupted as it was late in the second set, and they knew they needed to edge out Westfield to force a third.
However, the third set would never come.
Head coach Bev Torok called a timeout, aiming to regroup with her team and stall the momentum of the animated Millers. Immediately after the timeout, Westfield dominated. With five straight points, Westfield was able to take the second set with a score of 25-22.
“We talked about defensive positioning and hitting the holes we saw in their defense. They had a middle hole open, a line hole open and their five-spot on the opposite side,” said Torok, referring to their game plan coming out of the timeout. Pevzner and senior co-captain Caitlin Cabrales led the team with their play as outside hitters during Westfield’s sweep over Millburn. Pevzner especially excelled during the first set, making mid-air decisions on whether to rifle the ball straight or to loft the ball to a hole across the court. Physical prowess is only half the game, and mentality and level-headedness are just as important. Coupled with great decision-making, the seniors made sure to keep Westfield’s energy up.
“I think our energy brought us back up and once we get a lot of momentum we seem to play better as a team,” said Pevzner. At times during the second set, the Blue Devils appeared disjointed and unable to regroup before Millburn continued their attack.
Though the second set was full of drama, the first set was controlled entirely by Westfield. The Blue Devils came out of the gate firing, jumping to a 7-2 lead easily. They seemed to make very few mistakes in the first set, pressuring the Millburn defense and punishing them for straying out of position. Fortunately for the Blue Devils, the Millers’ were unable to keep up with Westfield’s constant pressure, as the Blue Devils extended to a 16-5 lead.
Nevertheless, Millburn refused to give up. With a couple of mind-boggling blocks on Westfield hits, they pulled themselves back into the game. With a score of 20-12, the odds of a Millburn comeback seemed low, but the Millers weren’t going to go down without a fight. The Blue Devils had to earn the last five points of the set with perfect passes and more inspiring kills from Cabrales and Pevzner. Westfield finished the first set with a 25-15 victory.
Westfield’s win builds onto an already fantastic 17-4 season, including a Union County Championship. Though a small and relatively unimportant regular season victory, this match can help motivate them going forward into state playoffs.
“This match definitely showed how we can build grit and climb our way out from difficult situations,” said senior co-captain Chloe Wiedman.
“States are important, it’s one of our goals. We have to take each match individually. Work to our strengths and against [the opponents’] weaknesses,” said Torok.
The Blue Devils will face Ridge in the first round of sectionals at home at 4 p.m. on Thursday.
