After losing a close, intense first set, the fourth seeded Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School girls volleyball team fell to first seeded Union Catholic in two sets (26-24, 25-13) in the semifinals of the Union County Tournament at Arthur L. Johnson High School on Oct. 29.
Despite the loss, coach Adrienne Stack was extremely proud of her players.
“I have never had a team in my career that has deserved to be in the semifinals as much as they did tonight,” coach Stack said, “They earned their night tonight and they earned every point that they have won all season. To be here in the semifinals tonight, I’m so proud of them. They had to work for it. It was not given to them.”
The first set was close throughout with both teams exchanging points and leads switching every few points. The game was tied at 24 points when the Vikings got two points in a row to take the hard-fought first set.
In the second set, the Raiders fell behind early on and could not manage to get ahead. However, the Raiders played well and had a couple of tough breaks against them.
The loss drops the Raiders to 13-8 on the season. With both the regular season and county tournament now over, the volleyball team has only the state tournament left.
The volleyball team next play on November 4th in a state tournament game. The number 20 seed in the Public Group III bracket. They played at the number 13 seed Toms River East at 4:30 pm.