St. Joes is SUPER

By Fred Siegle

METUCHEN - There is St. Josephs, and then there is everybody else.

That's what the results at the Super Six Showcase showed on Saturday. The Falcons, now 33-1 and and on a 33-match winning streak, won four matches against some of the top teams in the state with relative ease. East Brunswick, their main rival, faltered a bit against the same competition and went 3-1, losing to St. Peter's Prep, and going to 3 games against Eastern and Bayonne. St. Peter's also went 3-1, losing to Southern. Bayonne went 2-2, beating Southern and Eastern. Southern went 1-3, salvaging a tough day with a last-match victory over St. Peter's, and Eastern went 0-4, going to 3 games against East Brunswick and St. Peter's Prep.

St. Joes, No. 1 in the PowerZonevb.com state rankings, beat No. 2 Southern 25-13, 25-18, No. 4 St. Peter's 25-17, 25-15, No. 5 Bayonne 25-16, 25-16, and No. 9 Eastern 25-11, 25-20. Marcin Midura led the way with 39 kills in the four matches, while Paul Konopacki contributed 22.

The Falcon's season-opening loss to East Brunswick is now a distant memory - to everyone but the players on the team.

"That loss was good for us, in a way, because we learned from it,'' said senior libero Eddie Rossiter, who's highlights included 15 digs against Southern and 13 against Eastern. "We know not to take anything for granted.''

Now that the Super Six is over, the Falcons are setting their sites on the two upcoming postseason tournaments. They'll likely meet East Brunswick again (they've split two meetings, the season-opener won by the Bears, and last week in their regular-season rematch that St. Joes won) in the Greater Middlesex County Tournament, and could meet their county rivals again in the state tournament.

And while their main state tournament rivals, East Brunswick and Southern, have faltered a bit, the Falcons are cruising along.

"Right now, everything is clicking for us,'' Rossiter said. "We're serving aggressively, our defense is improving, we're hitting smarter, our team chemistry is real good. But we know we have to keep improving, the most important thing is how we're playing when we get into the tournaments.''

East Brunswick struggled a bit at the showcase, but the Bears' win over Southern gave them something to hang their hopes on and probably set them as the No. 2 seed in the South/Central section for the state tournament.

"We knew we had to beat them in order to get the playoff match at home for us,'' said Christian Portera, who had 24 kills and 11 blocks for East Brunswick in its four matches. "We had a tough start in the morning against St. Peter's, but we're not really morning players.''

Mike Kvidahl had 50 kills and 11 blocks in the four matches for East Brunswick, while setter Andy Balint had 103 assists.

Note: I'll add more when I get all the stats!