RECAP: Getting Back on the Court with MOCO’s 17s and 18s
New Jersey is still waiting on real tournament play to start up again. In the meantime, our athletes are putting in serious work. Out of a small-but-mighty club in Freehold comes a ton of shining star players. Monmouth County Volleyball…
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Continue ReadingNew Jersey is still waiting on real tournament play to start up again. In the meantime, our athletes are putting in serious work. Out of a small-but-mighty club in Freehold comes a ton of shining star players.
Monmouth County Volleyball Club (MOCO) is a two-team club headed by Bert Hor. On Sunday, October 25th, I had the opportunity to watch his teams face off in a five-set scrimmage. While it’s still early on in the season, the MOCO girls really showed up to play.
From chatting with the coaching staff, I discovered that while the 18s team is stronger, the 17s are overall more athletic and have more team chemistry from playing together for longer. That made this scrimmage more of a battle of brain vs. brawn. Could the younger team use finesse and endurance to outplay the 18s, or was the older team destined to outsmart and out-skill them at every turn?
Let’s relive the highlights to find out:
The match started off with two bullet jump serves from the 18s setter Teagan Fry. The 17’s fought back with a swing from their own setter Mary Rose Salva. However, Fry stayed on-point and retaliated with 11 straight aces. With another long service run a few rotations later, this time from setter Mia Maltzman, the 18s had put themselves in a powerful position over their sister team.
Set one was a blowout. The 17s couldn’t get into their rhythm early enough to come back from the two long serve receive ruts. Even when they played the ball up, they got stuck smashing balls right into the block. With Mary Huegel 6′ on the outside, Lauren Jeremich 5’11 on the right side, and middles Gabrielle Guida 5’11 and Bella Digioia 5’11 solidifying the block, the 18s have quite the impenetrable front row. Should 17s have made a play beyond the wall, libero Noelle Hor – older sister to 17s libero Sofia Hor– is a defensive beast just starving for some digs.
17s soon learned how to bounce back. They managed some solid coverage on the blocks and were often able to pop the ball up and make a return. Even still, rallies like that can be exhausting. Libero Sofia Hor’s scrappy plays alone were not enough to turn the tides. It wasn’t until Salva ran a few quicker balls with Reece Jones in the middle the 17s finally got around the brick wall 18s put up.
This was a watershed moment for the 17s which carried them well into the following sets. The younger team stepped up their service game and pushed 18s back on their heels. The 17s started to get comfortable running their offense against the 18s’ huge blocking force. With Grace Black on the outside and Dibjot Kaur on the right side, the 18s needed to stay disciplined. Later on in the morning, we saw even more pressure put on the front row by Victoria Wachowicz and Alex Foley on the outside, Anisha Srinivasan on the right side, Reece Jones on the right side and middle, and Kate Stedronsky and Olivia Hill in the middle.
The 18s’ outside hitters Huegal and Talia Stolker wouldn’t let that go on for long. Standing at 6 feet tall, Huegel’s long and strong physique is unmatched; she was able to take charge of the serve receive and pound down a few tight sets to get her team back on the board. Once Stolker made it up to the front row, she kept Huegel’s momentum going and delivered plenty of well-placed and powerful shots of her own.
It was clear that Fry isn’t afraid to move the ball around her offense as well, often utilizing the back row attack in times of trouble. She has the pulse on which hitters are hot and hungry. The other setter Maltzman was recently converted from an outside hitter and she’s stepped into her role well. I think the ball-hungry mentality of a successful outside hitter provides her with the same tenacity needed to be an all-star setter. I am excited to see how she uses this fire to continue developing herself as a key player for her team’s offense in this new way.
Overall, it ended up being more than just a match of experience vs. athleticism. Both teams proved themselves to be worthy adversaries. The 17s closed the gap in later sets that morning by making more aggressive plays and taking more risks. The only thing that held the 18s back at the end of the day was their struggle to develop group synergy. Things came together for them like magic when the pass was on target, but you can see that they were still learning each other in ways that the 17s had already done.
With so much time left in this club season, I can’t wait to see how MOCO shows off in the coming tournaments. Keep an eye on these teams to watch their exponential growth in action!