Caldwell Volleyball Sweeps Home Tournament

Even with a new head coach, James Caldwell High School's girls volleyball team continues to dominate the competition. The Lady Chiefs took care of its three competitors—Verona, Cedar Grove and Mount St. Dominic — at the season's opening tournament at Caldwell Saturday.

Caldwell defeated Verona (25-11, 25-17), Cedar Grove (25-9, 25-16) and Mount St. Dominic (25-20, 25-20).

The Mount defeated Cedar Grove first (25-22, 25-14) and then dispatched Verona (25-19, 25-15), before falling to Caldwell.

For Caldwell, it was the powerful hitting of senior Kelly McCaddin and junior Brittany Wolf that made the difference. McCaddin, one of the top players in Essex County and a top middle hitter, was also doing well with her serves.

"We work on serving every single practice," said McCaddin, who lauded her teammate Wolf. "She takes so much pressure off of me."

For the Mount, seniors Christina Giglio and Alexis Miller kept the Lions in the two contests.

It seemed fitting that Caldwell and Mount St. Dominic would face each other last in the tournament.

Every time the Chiefs started to pull away, Mount St. Dominic would come back and give the defending state group champs a fight.

In the early going of the first game, both teams battled back and forth with both teams tied at eight, but the Chiefs took advantage of some errors by the Lions. Caldwell went ahead 13-9 after Mount St. Dominic's Giglio forced a hit out.

After a Lions timeout, the Mount's Miller pushed a dig to cut the Caldwell lead to 13-10.

But the force of the Chiefs top hitters, McCaddin and Wolf, started to take hold. The second back-to-back kill from Wolf put Caldwell up 19-12.

Just when you thought you would put the game in the win column for the Chiefs, the Lions came back as a Sam Meehan service ace sliced the Caldwell lead to three, 21-18. The Chiefs would score four out of the last six points to grab the opener.

For the second game, Caldwell started what they finished off in the first game with the help of McCaddin's serves. Back-to-back aces from McCaddin put the Chiefs ahead 8-3. Mount St. Dominic though came back and cut the Caldwell lead to three, 11-8, after a Wolf serve hit the net.

Caldwell would come back and score the next six points with the help of some nice points from Paige Johnson, Ijeoma Ikpe and McCaddin for a 17-8 lead.

After the Chiefs took a 22-13 lead, the Lions would not quit and scored four points to chop the Caldwell lead to five, 22-17, after they took advantage of a McCaddin miss hit. In addition, Mount St. Dominic took advantage of some Chiefs errors that put the Lions only three down, 23-20, and Cooper called a time out.

After the time out, a Johnson kill and a McCaddin dig kept Caldwell undefeated.

With the smoke cleared after the tournament, the Chiefs are 3-0 to start the season in search of a third straight state title and Mount St. Dominic is 2-1.

Caldwell's new coach Don Cooper said he thought his team accomplished what it needed to do for the opening matches. "I thought overall we played a high- level game," said Cooper, adding that there is still work to do. "I thought we were hot and cold at times."

Mount St. Dominic head coach Mary Beth Olsinski said she was proud of how her team played against Caldwell. "They didn't stop and were fighting until the end," Olsinski said. "They worked hard for it as a team."

Olsinski added that her team needs to work on their receiving, be it from serves or hits, but lauded her top two players, Giglio and Miller. Giglio was "phenomenal and very smart" said Olsinski, adding about Miller. "She will do everything for our team."