Union Catholic Volleyball Puts Up Strong Fight Against IHA

A kill by Union Catholic standout senior outside hitter Emily Wilman over the best player in the state – Immaculate Heart Academy 6-5 senior middle blocker and Penn State-bound Ariel Scott – gave the Vikings a fifth straight point and an 8-7 lead in the second game of Saturday afternoon’s Non-Public state championship match at William Paterson University in Wayne.

Union Catholic was rolling and had two-time defending champion IHA of Bergen County’s Washington Township on its heels. Not many teams in the state can say that they had such a stretch of success against the most formidable Blue Eagles.

The Vikings did. It proved that at times Union Catholic could play with the best team in the state.

Although the Vikings were vanquished in their quest for a second state championship and first since 2005 – falling to IHA 25-14, 25-14 – they proved to be more competitive against the Blue Eagles than they were in last year’s final at William Paterson when they were bested 25-8, 25-16 .

That, in itself, is some sort of victory for the best team in Union County.

“You try everything you could do against this team,” Union Catholic head coach Nancy Saggio said.

Union Catholic finished another outstanding season with a final record of 22-5, its other four losses coming to Hunterdon Central, Science Park of Newark, Livingston and Old Tappan.

IHA will take a 28-1 record into the Tournament of Champions, where the Blue Eagles are two-time defending champions. IHA won a county championship and state championship in the same season for the first time. Its only loss was to a team from New York in its own tournament.

“We served better in the second game, but then our setting got questionable and we were not getting the ball in a good spot,” Saggio said. "It was like you fix one thing and then the next thing doesn’t work.”

The only lead Union Catholic had in the first game was 1-0 after a service point by sophomore Julie Monroy. IHA quickly built a 5-1 advantage before the Vikings could gain another point and then eventually get the match to 6-5.

Union Catholic continued to hang in there with the Blue Eagles and pulled to within 9-7 on a strong kill by Monroy.

However, IHA went on to gain the next seven points to take a commanding 15-7 lead. At that point, the Blue Eagles took control of the match.

They did so behind two kills from junior outside hitter Danielle Michaels and two by senior middle blocker Petra Parros.

When Union Catholic sophomore Annyssa Herlihy did well to block a kill attempt by Scott for a Viking point, it made the score 20-13. Herlihy was also able to do the same thing for a Union Catholic point in the second game, stuffing a block attempt by the much taller Scott for the second time on the day.

After trailing 20-13 in the first game, Union Catholic was only able to gain one more point, which came on a kill by Wilman.

The team leader in kills, Wilman paced Union Catholic with a total of eight against IHA and added two digs.

Monroy finished with three kills, four digs and one ace, while senior setter Colleen Sweeney had 14 assists and three digs.

Scott had a match-best 12 kills and also two blocks and six digs. Her younger sister, sophomore Raquel Scott, had five kills and five digs.

Senior setter Kristin Flatkeval had 22 assists and sophomore Amanda Garbarino 10 service points. Michaels finished with five kills, six digs, nine service points and two aces and Parros with five kills and three blocks.

Consecutive kills by Ariel Scott and then a point at the net gave IHA a 7-3 lead in the second game. Union Catholic then played its best stretch and made sure the Blue Eagles were not going to have an easy time of it in the second game.

A kill by Wilman made it 7-4. Now with sophomore Kelly Schulhafer serving, Union Catholic gained another point to make it 7-5.

Then Herlihy stuffed Scott at the net to make it 7-6. Two more kills by Wilman gave the Vikings an 8-7 lead and provided the crowd with the thought of, "could Union Catholic get this match to a third game?"

 That wasn’t to be because after the Vikings scored five straight points to take their one-point lead and then after the match was tied at 9-9, IHA came right back to score the next five points for a 14-9 cushion. Parros had a kill and Flatkeval served an ace in that key stretch.

Union Catholic’s final point of the season came on an IHA serve that went out. Two points before that, Monroy produced the last Viking kill of the 2009 campaign. A Rahway resident, Monroy will be a player to continue to keep an eye on in the next two years.

Scott closed the second game with her 12^th and final kill.

“I thought we had moments of brilliance where I said, ‘that was really nice,’” Saggio said. “We had some nice passes, but then you can’t go back and miss a serve. We weren’t narrowing our unforced errors. We’re still a conference champ and a county champ and we made it to another Non-Public final, so the season’s a success.”

 NOTES: Union Catholic was the first school from Union County to win a state championship when the Vikings defeated Lacordaire in the 2005 Non-Public final.

Roselle Catholic was the second when the Lions downed IHA in the 2006 Non-Public final.

Cranford was the third when the Cougars defeated Northern Valley Demarest in the 2008 Group 2 final.

Westfield is the only other Union County team to reach a state championship match. The Blue Devils fell to Hunterdon Central in the 2002 Group 4 final.

Union Catholic is now 1-6 in state finals, while Roselle Catholic and Cranford are 1-0 and Westfield 0-1. 

A GOOD CAST IS WORTH REPEATING

2009 UNION CATHOLIC VIKINGS

Union County Conference champions

Undefeated against Union County opponents

Repeat Union County Tournament champions

Non-Public State Tournament finalists

The Players

1-Brianne Sinclair, senior

2-Julie Monroy, sophomore

3-Kim Esguerra, sophomore

4-Kelly Schulhafer, sophomore

5-Catie Finnegan, senior captain

6-Brenda Eke, senior

7-Emily Wilman, senior

8-Teresa Pollock, junior

9-Lauren Faria, sophomore

10-Michelle Peters, sophomore

11-Samantha Gonzalez, junior

12-Colleen Sweeney, senior captain

15-Gerianna Pingo, senior captain

16-Annyssa Herlihy, sophomore

18-Ashley Sporer, junior

21-Lisa Birritteri, junior

The Coaches

Head coach: Nancy Saggio

Assistant coaches: Pamela Sawicki, Nancy Peralta