St. Joseph beats Fair Lawn

By Fred Siegle

METUCHEN - When the games were on the line, St. Joseph's volleyball team was unfazed by the pressure.

In both games against Fair Lawn on Monday, the teams battled back and forth until the score was 18-18. And in both games, the Falcons came through with strings of points to emerge with a 25-19, 25-21 victory.

Senior middle Drew Colon, who finished the match with a solo block, his second in three points, said it was simply a matter of figuring out the opponents.

"Their whole team hits angle, none of them ever hit line,'' Colon said. "It's easy to block when you know where they're going.''

Fair Lawn had a 21-20 lead in game two, but a service error tied the score. Then, Colon had a dig that enabled setter Steve Korbos to feed Marcin Midura (5 kills, 2 blocks) for a kill, Colon put up a block for a point, Keith MacDonald earned his 7th kill of the match, and Colon blocked for the match. He finished with 3 kills and 3 blocks in the two games.

"When it comes down to the crucial points, we have to learn to play the way we've played in the rest of the game,'' Fair Lawn coach Pete Zisa said. "It's all about playing those big points, we need all cylinders firing.''

"We gained momentum from our hitting as the games went on,'' MacDonald said. "I thought Fair Lawn played well, and our passing got a little shaky at one point. We have to work on that. But we kept swinging and stayed aggressive.''

Middle Paul Konapacki had 6 kills and 3 blocks for the Falcons, who are ranked third in the Powerzonevb.com top 10 and improved to 9-1.

The Falcons will be tested again on Tuesday when they visit No. 1 East Brunswick in a makeup match from last week.

"It's obviously a big game and it'll be intense, we'll be in their place and I'm sure it will be loud,'' Colon said. "But we know the most important thing will be how well we're playing when we get to the state tournament.''

Artem Makarenko led Fair Lawn, now 7-1 and No. 5 in the Powerzonevb.com rankings, with 7 kills. Alex Bylinkin had 5 kills, and Matt Agnew contributed 3. Setter Jon Bashan had 15 assists.

"We still haven't played our best yet,'' Zisa said. "But I saw some good things today. St. Joes
is a real good team with no weak points.''