By Fred Siegle
MANAHAWKEN - It's looking more and more like the road to the NJSIAA finals is going to go through Southern Regional for the South/Central bracket, and Hudson County in the North bracket.
Southern, No. 1 in the the Powerzonevb.com rankings, won four matches Saturday to capture the title at the Southern Invitational, staying unbeaten for the year. They beat St. Peter's (19-5) in the final, but the Hudson County power showed that it may be the only real challenger to unbeaten Bayonne, their Hudson County counterpart, for the No. 1 seed in the north by going 3-1, including victories over Fair Lawn and Old Bridge, which were both ranked higher.
Old Bridge, ranked No. 4, lost to St. Peters in pool play and also lost to Southern in the semifinals, and went 2-2 for the day. Fair Lawn, ranked No. 5, lost to Southern in pool play and St. Peters in the semis and also was 2-2. Cherry Hill West (1-3 for the day) and Williamstown (0-4) were also at the tournament.
Southern's Nolan King was named the tournament MVP, registering 28 kills for the day, including 12 in leading the Rams to a comeback win over Old Bridge in the semis, and 5 in the final against St. Peter's.
The Rams beat Old Bridge 25-22, 25-17, but the Knights had a 7-1 lead in one of the games before King took over.
"In that game, he carried us for a little while until everyone else got back on track,'' said Southern coach Eric Maxwell. "We had to fight our way back into it in that game, and Nolan got extremely hot. He kept us close, 2-3 points behind, by siding out. Then we broke through and won.''
The Rams beat St. Peter's 25-10, 25-19. Fran Hodgson had 9 kills and 5 blocks in that match, while Jeff Elsasser contributed 7 kills and 2 blocks. Both were also named to the all-tournament team.
The tournament provided the Rams with their first real test since they took over the No. 1 spot by going undefeated in a quad match with former No. 1 East Brunswick and No. 3 St. Josephs.
"We're just trying to stay consistent,'' Elsasser said. "We know the competition is going to come after us, so we're trying to step up and play better every match, every week. At this point we've played just about everyone, we know what we have to do. And being No. 1 puts extra pressure on us, because everyone wants to beat us.''
St. Peters beat Fair Lawn 25-19, 25-19. Matt Whitford led the way with 11 kills in that match, while libero Kevin McNerney had 10 digs. Both were named to the all-tournament team.
The Marauders lost to Bayonne earlier in the season, but will meet their county foes again on Thursday, probably with the top seed in North Jersey on the line. Bayonne has already beaten the Cutters.
"That's a big game no matter what happened here,'' coach Don Guide said. "But I think North Jersey seeding comes down to that match now. Fair Lawn doesn't have any way to recoup from those losses. There might be another team or two that might think they have a claim to the top spot, but in my mind, whoever wins on Thursday won't have to play away from home in the playoffs until the tournament shifts to neutral sites. (For the final in each section).''
Also named to the all-tournament team were Lance Rogers and Joe Nemeth of Old Bridge, and Alex Bylinkin of Fair Lawn.
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