Girls Volleyball Ends Home Schedule With Senior Night Win

The Watchung Hills Regional High School girls volleyball team took down Warren Hills High School on Senior Night in Warren on Monday evening, winning 2-0.

In Short

The Warriors closed out the home portion of their 2011 schedule, as they swept Warren Hills in two sets, winning 25-14 and 25-9.  After being tied in the first set 10-10, Warriors notch consecutive point streaks of four and seven as they took 15 of the next 19 points.  The second set saw the Warriors continue their dominance.  Watchung took 21 of the final 28 points.  The Warriors were tremendous on the attack, placing many shots where Warren Hills could not even get their hands on them in attempt to dig it out.  Watchung is now 9-11 on the season and are on the bubble for a berth in the state playoffs. 

Warrior of the Game

Katelyn Healy – Honored on Senior Night, the Warriors best opposite hitter dominated the front of the net, notching seven kills.

Other Key Performances 

Cecilia Wu – The freshman middle blocker had an all around quality game on Thursday night.  Wu recorded three aces, three digs, three kills, and one block.

Coach’s Take

“We take a timeout and say, ‘Well, we got that out of our system.’  Then we start playing like we’re supposed to.”  - Head Coach Rich Pickrell on the slow start before getting on a roll

“She’s our primary attacker.  She gets a lot of the sets.  Most teams struggle to stop Katelyn and that’s our gameplan to run the middle.  It works pretty effectively.” – Pickrell on the team’s strategy

“The ball control was very good.  Everyone took a lot of good swings.  We didn’t need to block a lot.  The serving was great.  That’s what we need…to take other teams out of their offense and their system.” – Pickrell on ranking his team’s performance compared to their other wins

“From the beginning of the year to now, is pretty impressive.  Her blocking has improved.  Her hitting has gone from, ‘Don’t set Katelyn much’ to ‘Give her every ball’.  That’s made a big difference.” – Pickrell on senior Katelyn Healy

They Said It

“In the beginning of the game, we always kind of do that [coming out slow].  We realize that we need to fix things and we come together as a team.” – Katelyn Healy on the team’s slow start

“We did play well today.  It normally takes us a while to come back in a game.” – Healy on ranking the team’s performance

“It was really nerve wracking in the beginning.  I was shaking, I didn’t know how to react.  I’ve been here the past two years setting up [decorations] for all the seniors.  It actually meant a lot.  I wasn’t expecting to get this emotional about it but it was a great experience.  I had a lot of fun.” – Healy on experiencing Senior Night