The Belleville boys volleyball team tested its strength outside of the county and dominated Dover on Monday with a two straight game victory, 25-15, 15-18.
Offensively, it was the Bucs duo of Thomas Rosario and Jaleel Dolor who did in Dover on the road with eight and seven kills, respectively.
Luigi Zanoria set up the pair with 20 assists and added four kills of his own. Carl Laroco added 13 digs in the victory. Orlando Andrade added four kills and four digs. Rosario also had four blocks in the victory.
The win gave Belleville an 8-2 record as they travel to West Essex on Wednesday (4 p.m.) and a quality Clifton (4 p.m.) team on Thursday.
"We're 8-2 right now and playing well, but I'm still waiting for that breakthrough performance," said Belleville head coach Chris Terranova. "I'm also waiting for the setter and the three hitters to start clicking on all cylinders."
The first-year head coach added that he knows the team can be even better. "We need to be more consistent in all aspects of the game," said Terranova. "There's always room for improvement, primarily serving, passing, and not to roll over when we go down a few points."
Baseball
Belleville continued to slump after a 3-1 start as they dropped their fifth game in a row on Monday with a 4-1 loss to Lyndhurst at home. They're now 3-6.
Despite the loss it was a well-played game by pitcher Sam Balaban and the Bucs defense against an undefeated Golden Bears team.
Balaban pitched well with only one bad pitch that to opposing pitcher James Kim, who smacked a solo home run over the left field wall in the fourth inning. The southpaw scattered nine hits and struck out three in the independent game.
“We have been slumping offensively,” said head coach Joe Sorce. “It hasn’t been a couple of players, it’s the entire team. You are okay if you have one or two players slumping, but not six or seven.”
He added that his team has been working to get out of this slump. “These guys are working hard,” said Sorce.
The Bucs did get seven hits, but hit into two double plays and also did not get the key hits off Lyndhurst pitcher James Kim. The double plays came in the first and second innings, killing rallies.
Against Lyndhurst Belleville received production from the bottom of the order with catcher Michael Cayli and first baseman Joe Anello smacking a pair of base hits each.
At the top of the order shortstop Armani Caceres had the lone RBI that came in the third inning scoring Cayli from third base on a sacrifice fly.
Belleville will try to end its five-game slide on Wednesday at Irvington (4 p.m.) and at West Orange under the lights on Saturday (7 p.m.).
Softball
The Lady Bucs saw their three-game winning streak go up in smoke on Friday with a 5-2 loss at West Essex in a Super Essex Conference battle.
Belleville started out slow against the Lady Knights, who made the Essex County final last season, as the Lady Bucs were down 4-0 in the third inning.
Offensively, Jessica Benacquista led the way with a pair of hits as the Lady Bucs could not get more off of West pitcher Courtney Mensch.
Coming into the battle with West Essex, Belleville had collected a big victory, 7-6, in extra innings at home against Newark Academy at home.
In the bottom of the 10th inning, Victoria Andreola scored the winning run on a Gianna Veniero's sacrifice fly.
Andreola led the way offensively with three base hits.
The Lady Bucs took a 3-0 lead in the fourth inning, but the Lady Minutemen stormed ahead with five runs in the top of the fifth inning.
Belleville returned the favor and sent the game into extra innings with two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Melissa Taylor went 2-for-4 in the game with two RBI including a triple. Veniero and DeAnna DeMaio had an RBI each for the Lady Bucs.
In the circle FrankieAnn Fontana came in relief and got the victory with six innings of relief.
The Lady Bucs have a few tough games the rest of the week starting on Wednesday at home against West Orange (4 p.m.), at Montclair on Thursday (4 p.m.) and at Wayne Hills on Saturday (11 a.m.), one of the toughest teams in Passaic County.
