Demarest girls volleyball rallies to beat River Dell for sectional title
DEMAREST — Taylor Miller made the difference, and Demarest is back to being a sectional champion in girls volleyball.
Miller spiked the winning kill – her 32nd of the match – in Tuesday’s North 1, Group 2 final against River Dell. The No. 3 seed Norsewomen rallied for a 27-29, 25-12, 25-9 victory and their ninth sectional title since 2011.
No. 4 River Dell came back from an early 6-2 deficit in the first set and nearly climbed out of a 9-1 hole in the second, getting as close as 9-7 before Miller and Netta Saban got the Demarest attack rolling.
“A 29-27 game can knock you down, and you could go out in two,” Norsewomen coach Beth Powell said. “So, the fact that we were able to come back in the second set and then own the third, that is going to keep us up for the next round.”
Demarest (21-4) advanced to Thursday’s NJSIAA semifinals and will face North 2 champion Montville.
What it means
This is the Norsewomen’s first sectional crown since before the pandemic. Their last Group 2 championship came in 2019 and was their 11th all-time under Powell.
Demarest and River Dell (17-5) both reached the final by defeating the teams that knocked them out of last year’s tournament (Old Tappan and Sparta, respectively).
Miller and her fellow seniors finally got to hoist some hardware after falling in the 2020 sectional final and 2021 Bergen County final.
“We were very mentally prepared for this game,” the Marist commit said. “We went into this with the mindset of, ‘No one is beating us in our gym. This is our game, we want it’.”
Key points
Demarest nearly won the first set on a Miller spike, but it was ruled just out, tying the score at 27. A Helena Marcus ace and a Julia Ryan kill then gave the Hawks the lead in the match.
But senior Claire Song served the final five points of set No. 2, then kept setting Miller and Saban (9 kills) for a combination of hard spikes and tip-kills.
“In big moments, I know that if I put the ball anywhere, I can trust Taylor to put it away and make the smart decisions,” Song said. “Same thing with Netta… she started swinging away in the third set, and that was the difference-maker.”
By the numbers
6: Aces served by five different Demarest players: Kara Kim (2), Syrena Sayid, Isabella Villa, Miller and Saban.
6: Aces served by River Dell, 2 each for Marcus, Leah McHale and Erin McCabe.
5: Different categories in which McCabe, the versatile Hawks senior, recorded a stat: 5 kills, 3 blocks, 4 digs and 1 assist to go along with her aces
20: Digs by Miller, a match high
They said it
Powell was asked if winning a match like this can make her team think a state-title run is possible.
“It does put the idea in their head when you have to battle like that – and you know that it’s a high-quality [opponent] and it’s a high-quality section” she said. “We came through Old Tappan, River Dell, Jefferson – those are big, good wins for us and hard matches. So hopefully, we’re gaining some grit and backbone.”
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Demarest NJ girls volleyball tops River Dell for sectional title
