By Fred Siegle
Metuchen - Its tough schedule didn't allow St. Josephs very long to rebound from its opening day loss to East Brunswick.
But the Falcons, No. 2 in the PowerZonevb.com New Jersey Top 10, showed they have rebounded from the loss on Saturday, beating three other top 10 teams in a quad meet. They beat No. 7 Don Bosco 25-18, 25-12, No. 5 Bayonne 25-22, 25-21, and No. 3 Southern 31-33, 25-17, 25-21.
"No one on our team played their "A'' game against East Brunswick,'' said setter Steve Brandenburg. "Everything we've done since then is to get ready to play them again. Every time we play, we envision them on the other side. We can't slip up against another team before we play them again. We want to go in to our second game against them with only one loss, and we want to leave that game with only one loss.''
"In practice and in games, that's all we think about, playing East Brunswick again,'' said libero Eddie Rossiter.
In the victory over Southern, Marcin Midura had 15 kills, two aces, and 7 digs, while Paul Konopacki had 13 kills and 6 blocks. Rossiter had 22 digs.
Southern trailed the first game 24-21, but came back to tie the game on a kill by Eric Sharkey, a block by James Mancini and a St. Joes error. A combination block by Mancini and Ken Connelly gave the Rams the first of seven subsequent game point possibilities (St. Joes had one), and they finally won on a kill by Connelly and a St. Joes error.
"We knew we had to pick up the intensity in the second game and we did,'' Brandenburg said. "In the second and third games, we were double blocking everything they did, and we were picking up all their roll shots and tips. ''
Against Bayonne, Midura and Bobby O'Grady each had 6 kills for the Falcons.
"This was a good day, on offense we pretty much ran every combination we have,'' Brandenburg said.
Connelly had 13 kills and 4 blocks, Nick Nichols had 9 kills and 4 blocks, and Sharkey had 7 kills in Southern's loss to St. Joes. Setter Steve Vaughan had 33 assists, 5 kills and 13 digs. Southern went 2-1 in the quad, beating Bayonne 25-14, 25-12, and Don Bosco 25-23, 25-10.
"I was pleased with our offense, I felt we were able to side out consistently,'' said coach Eric Maxwell.
Maxwell was impressed with how well Nichols had played as a middle. He's not tall, especially for that position, and had played most of the preseason as a libero and outside. But he makes up for his lack of height with good jumping ability.
"He forces you, as a coach, to find a place for him,''' Maxwell said. "He's too good not to play front row. ''
Bayonne beat Don Bosco, 25-19, 23-25, 25-12. Danny Kochanski had 18 kills, Krystof Bogdan added 9 kills, and Patryk Ruscnika chipped in 7 kills. Setter Coco Ostorga had 23 assists.
Aaron Carlisle had 5 kills for Don Bosco against St. Joes, while Jake Sandoval contributed 4 kills and 4 digs against Southern. Carlisle had 11 kills against Bayonne, while Ryan Furlong had 4 digs. Setter Doug Battersby had 15 assists against St. Joes, 12 against Southern, and 22 against Bayonne.
"This was a good learning day for us,'' said coach Mark Mako. ''We're a young team, but I think we have the potential to be a very strong team, and we have to play strong teams to show it. We have talent, we have to put it all together. A lot of it has to do with confidence. These guys haven't seen teams like this in this kind of setting.''
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