The Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School girls' volleyball team opened rivalry week with an opportunity. The Raiders led Westfield in both games Monday afternoon at Westfield High School, but the Raiders fell to their border rivals for the second time this season, 25-23, 25-19.
Scotch Plains-Fanwood, which dropped its record to 4-7, will play host to another big rival – Union Catholic – Wednesday afternoon at home.
The Raiders had a 9-4 lead in the first game, fell behind 15-13, then rallied back to take a 17-16 lead. Westfield built a 24-18 lead, but Scotch Plains-Fanwood ran off five straight points to pull within 24-23. Unfortunately for the Raiders, Westfield scored the final point to take the first game.
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"Whenever you have a lead, your goal should always be to stretch the lead,'' said Raiders' coach Adrienne Stack. ""You have to be willing to push that extra mile and push it hard. They're a solid team and they're all solid players. It's just a matter of it all coming together to put the game away.''
The Raiders held leads of 3-0, 12-11 and had its last advantage of 16-15 in the second game, but Westfield outscored them 10-3 down the stretch to win 25-19.
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"I thought it got into our heads after we got down,'' said senior co-captain Rebecca Kreyer, whose team lost to Westfield at home 25-23, 25-21 Sept. 15. "We made one mistake, everybody got down. But we picked it up at the end, we came back, but we just didn't push hard enough. In the middle we missed a few hits, our passes were off and we gave up some points. We've had some hard games where we were close, but we haven't been able to push through,'' she added.
Kreyer had six assists, six service points and a dig. Senior co-captain and outside hitter Aysia Peterson had two aces, five service points, three kills and an assist. "My team did fight back in that first game, there has to be that something extra inside to push you,'' said Stack. "It's a whole plethora of things. The girls have to want it more than the other team wants it, more than the coach wants, more than their friends want it. And everything has to come together. Every day I will spend in practice and keep trying to put it together. They are all athletes, it's just a matter of coming together.''
