Top-Ranked Volleyball Team Falls

The Fair Lawn boys volleyball team certainly enjoyed its early season ride as the state’s top-ranked team, but coach Peter Zisa knows trophies aren’t handed out for being No. 1 in April. 

Fair Lawn, the state's No. 1-ranked team, was knocked from the unbeaten ranks by Hillsborough in straight sets, 25-22, 25-13, before a raucous home crowd at on Thursday night.

While the team-wide disappointment was evident as the Cutters walked off the court, Zisa gleaned some positives from the defeat.

“The fact that now we don’t have to worry about being No. 1 and focusing on being No. 1 at the end of the season,” Zisa said. “It’s definitely a little added pressure (being No. 1) that I don’t think we need to have this early in the season.”

The Cutters (14-1) were the latest top-ranked team to fall victim to No. 3 Hillsborough (16-1), who also upended previous No. 1 Southern Regional on April 12.

Fair Lawn, which fed off the crowd’s energy early on, grabbed an 8-5 lead in the first set and then stretched its advantage to 17-11. But the Somerset County squad ratcheted up its defensive effort and  clamped down on Fair Lawn’s stellar senior outside hitter Dan Nugent (12 kills, three blocks).

“They said, ‘Hey we’re going to take away your No. 1 option and somebody else beat us,’” Zisa said of the Hillsborough approach.

Hillsborough coach Todd Sudol said his team prepared to limit Nugent’s offensive opportunities and then executed the game plan effectively.

“You saw our blockers cheating all the way over to the right (toward Nugent) the whole time. That was the show. We basically said, ‘Lets get a hand on him and slow him down.’”

Hillsborough then close out the first stanza with a dominant 14-5 run, capped off by a Travis Haynes kill.

“We had a six-, seven-point lead in the first game and we thought that they were just going to succumb to us,” said Fair Lawn coach Peter Zisa. “They kept fighting and stepped up their D, and we weren’t really able to respond to their (rising) level of play.”

Sudol was sure to credit his back line of libero Tim Erdman, Brian Campanale and Josh Himelfarb for their defensive effort, especially in defending Nugent.

Setter Frank Batula was an offensive catalyst for the visitors, contributing 28 assists to go along with three digs and three kills. The Raiders closed the match out with 9-0 run, which included nine service points from the Haynes.

For the Cutters, setter Brian Toron posted 15 assists, while libero Oren Zyndorf added five digs.

 “I think what we get from today is that our offense lacks a little bit of versatility and that’s something that we’re going to have work on in the future,” Zisa said.

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