Ridgewood girls volleyball repeats as sectional champion, ready for next challenge
RIDGEWOOD — This time, Ridgewood’s sectional volleyball championship comes with bonuses.
The No. 1 seed Maroons defended their North 1, Group 4 title with a 25-22, 28-26 victory over No. 2 Clifton on Tuesday evening.
Unlike when Ridgewood earned the trophy in spring of the 2020-21 school year — and the NJSIAA tournament ended after sectionals due to COVID — the team will have another match to play. The Maroons advanced to Thursday’s state semifinals.
“It’s kind of like a shell-shock,” Ridgewood libero Grace Kautzmann said. “Last season, it was like, this is it. But now I’m so happy, as a senior, we get to ride it out to the end.”
Ridgewood will visit North 2 champ Ridge for the semis, and the winner of that match will play for the Group 4 crown Saturday at William Paterson University.
What it means
Another bonus for the Maroons (24-2) is that coach Jaime Marzocchi was able to be part of the celebration. The third-year coach was on maternity leave when they won the section in April.
Assistant coach Brian Quirk, who oversaw the spring title run, also pointed out that Ridgewood ended up with the correct trophy this time. The school did not have the North 1, Group 4 girls volleyball trophy in its possession the day of the previous sectional-title victory and wound up borrowing one from the trophy case for photo ops.
Clifton, which also reached the Passaic County final, finished the season 27-3 – its highest win total in 30 years.
Key sequences
Both sets featured big runs right near the end. Ridgewood held a 23-11 lead in the first before the Mustangs went on an 11-1 spree behind the serving of Morgan Lesler (four straight points, two aces) and Tamara Vasquez (five points, three aces).
Maroons setter Cammi Quirk used a clever push-kill to secure game point for Ridgewood.
Clifton reached game point in the second set at 24-20 before a side out. Quirk then served three consecutive points with two aces to turn the tide.
“Cammi is so good. She’s one of my players that, when she’s on the back line, I’m at ease,” Marzocchi said. “She had a missed serve tonight – that’s probably one of three or four missed serves she’s had all season. So, I’m confident in her serving ability.”
As she did in the Bergen County final, Annabelle He spiked the match point for Ridgewood.
By the numbers
► 41-6: Clifton’s record the past two seasons under coach Jorge Rodriguez.
► 38-5: Ridgewood’s record under Marzocchi in the same span.
► 758, 737: Respective all-time win totals for the Clifton and Ridgewood programs, which helped North Jersey girls volleyball get going in the early ’70s as members of the NNJIL.
Players of the match
► Quirk had 24 assists, seven digs, three kills and three aces in the win.
► He led the Maroons in kills (16), and Kautzman led in digs (eight).
► Senior Kate Louer had an outstanding match for Clifton with 14 kills and an ace, while Lesler put up 20 assists.
They said it
“In my head, I was definitely like, ‘OK, there could be a third set.’ But honestly, I know my girls have a tendency to surprise, and they did. They just crept their way back in.” —Marzocchi, on the time out she called with her team trailing 23-18 in the second set
“We really spread the defense; we change it up throughout the game. … Everyone has a lot of trust in each other to know what each other is seeing and know who’s getting the ball.” — Kautzmann
Greg Tartaglia is a high school sports reporter for NorthJersey.com. For full access to live scores, breaking news and analysis from our Varsity Aces team, subscribe today. To get breaking news directly to your inbox, sign up for our newsletter and download our app.
Email: tartaglia@northjersey.com
Twitter: @njtags13
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Ridgewood NJ girls volleyball repeats as sectional champion
