Andrew Constant – Sports Writer

EAST BRUNSWICK — As hard as it is to beat a team three times in one season, it’s even harder to knock off the same opponent four times in the same campaign.

The East Brunswick High School boys volleyball team, however, was able to take care of business against a familiar foe, defeating third-seeded Old Bridge 2-0 (25-22, 25-13) to advance to Friday’s NJSIAA Central sectional finals.

East Brunswick will meet the top seed, St. Joseph, for the title on Friday in Metuchen.

The second-seeded Bears (30-3) took all four meetings from Old Bridge this season in straight sets, but received a little bit of help on this day.

Junior Oboh, one of Old Bridge’s stars, was not available for the contest after breaking his ankle while playing for a Six Pack team in Richmond, Va. His void in the Knights’ defense allowed Mike Manne and the rest of the Bears to swing away at will in the middle of the floor.

Despite the fact that East Brunswick had topped Old Bridge (21-9) in their previous meetings, Bears’ coach Greg Rutz knew his team couldn’t just roll the ball out and emerge victorious.

“When you beat someone multiple times, your kids get it in their heads they’ve already beaten that team,” Rutz said. “They think it’ll be easy and it’s not easy. The other team comes in more fired up and more prepared. No matter what the score says, it doesn’t get any easier. They were missing a valuable player and they played great today.”

Even without Oboh, Old Bridge came out as the more determined team, at least in the first set, when they forced 13 ties and took three separate leads. Aiden Albrecht, the other star in the Knights’ lineup, buoyed a comeback from an early 4-0 deficit to take their first lead at 10-9.

But Manne and Dan Leung, who combined for 10 kills in the match, exploited the hole in Old Bridge’s defense time after time, and Manne finished the set with a powerful kill onto the court.

“They were out-playing us; Aiden made some great swings and they made some good defensive stops at the net,” Rutz said. “They came in with some energy and we came in saying ‘oh, there’s no Junior, we can relax a little bit.’ But Old Bridge is still a good squad and they showed it. They battled and luckily we got the better of them in the last couple points.”

After taking the lead in the first set at 21-20, the Bears never looked back, leading the second set from the opening serve and cruising to a relatively easy win. Manne, who also came up with two huge blocks, including one to seal the match, has improved since the start of the season to a point where he’s now comfortable in what he’s doing.

“The biggest improvement for Mike is that he’s more comfortable around us,” Rutz said. “We know that he can put balls away and he knows when he gets the ball, he’s going to put it away. When he and the setter are connecting, that’s how good Mike is.”

With St. Joseph taking care of Hillsborough in straight sets to advance to the finals, Manne thinks his squad may have a leg up on their Greater Middlesex Conference rival.

“They are already out of school and we’re still here, practicing on a regular routine and such, and they’re a little out of sorts, so we’re going to try and exploit that a little bit,” he said.

Old Bridge’s Shilan Shah connects against Cinnaminson Thursday. Photo by: Mark R. Sullivan

OLD BRIDGE — Playing the defending NJSIAA Central sectional champions didn’t seem to faze the Old Bridge High School boys volleyball team on Thursday.

Behind the stellar play of co-captains Aiden Albrecht and Junior Oboh, the third-seeded Knights rallied back from a seven-point deficit in the first set to defeat Cinnaminson 2-0 (27-25, 25-17) and advance to next Wednesday’s semifinals, where they’ll meet Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament champion East Brunswick.

“We came out point-for-point (in the first set) then we made a few unforced errors on over-passes, where we tried to attack the ball and we just couldn’t make it work,” Old Bridge coach Andrew Hopman said. “I coached an aggressive style today and I asked the players to play that way. So we fell behind a bit in the first set and that’s when I said to the guys that we needed our big guys to step up.”

One of those big guys was Albrecht, who received a pep talk from Hopman during the first set.

The senior captain, who will play collegiately at Penn State next spring, didn’t want this to be the last game he played in high school.

“I knew that as a captain I had to do whatever I could to pull us out from that big hole and lead us to victory,” Albrecht said. “They were playing really scrappy and I just had to keep on hitting and just stay after it.”

Hopman made it clear that when his squad needs a boost, they just have to look for No. 13 in black.

“It’s not rocket science, when he’s hot, get it to him,” Hopman said. “And I told Aiden before the game that all of the camps and clinics he’s gone to since he was in eighth grade were all for days like today. I told him that’s he that good and he needed to take over for us. In practice, when I say the losing team has to run, Aiden takes over because he doesn’t want to run. So I told him that if we lose this game, he’s running and he turned it on.”

Oboh, the Knights’ other co-captain who will play his college volleyball at Princeton, came up with a pair of huge blocks at the end of the second set to thwart Cinnaminson scoring chances. In all, the front line of Old Bridge was just too much for the sixth-seeded Pirates, who tried to will themselves to victory by chanting and jumping around between points.

“I felt that because Cinnaminson does a lot of chants and a lot of running around, that if we got up on them, they would go down. But you can never count them out; you have to bring your ‘A’ game to beat Cinnaminson,” Hopman said afterwards.

Now that they’ve taken care of Cinnaminson and moved into the semifinals, Old Bridge’s reward is playing East Brunswick for the fourth time this season. The second-seeded Bears have taken all three previous meetings, including a 2-0 decision in the GMCT semifinals. Albrecht kept it simple in explaining how the Knights have to play to continue their season.

“We just have to play a lot tougher,” he said. “We lost three times to them this year and we have to remember how it feels to lose and give it our all. There’s nothing left after this.”

East Brunswick’s Michael Manne celebrates with teammates in Saturday’s GMCT final against St. Joseph. Photo by: Mark R. Sullivan.

EDISON — The East Brunswick High School boys volleyball team made sure that they wouldn’t be a three-time loser to St. Joseph this season.

From start to finish, the second-seeded Bears were dominant, rolling to a 2-0 (25-15, 25-18) victory over top-seeded St. Joseph (36-4) to win the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament title Saturday at J.P. Stevens High School. It is the seventh GMCT title for East Brunswick (27-3) in the last 12 seasons and its first since 2009.

On this day, it was all about exacting revenge from two regular-season defeats at the hands of the Falcons.

“When they beat us on our home court, we felt embarrassed,” setter Alec Weissman said. “We felt like we played well below our level and I think we really wanted this because it meant the most.”

Dan Leung, who starred on East Brunswick’s basketball team this winter, felt a reversal of fortunes personally. The Bears took both regular-season meetings from the St. Joseph basketball team and then lost in the GMCT final, so there was incentive to flip the script for him.

“We had a lot of motivation, since they beat us twice in the regular season, and it was pretty obvious that we had to come out here and make a statement,” Leung said. “From basketball season to now, everything just flip-flopped.”

East Brunswick jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the first set, with Weissman serving, and never looked back. A front line of Jack Fredricks, Billy Fox and Owen Summerer helped stifle any St. Joseph efforts to get back into the contest, blocking multiple shots right onto the court.

“We work on blocking a lot and as a school, we’ve never been a great blocking team,” coach Greg Rutz said. “So we work on it and today it just connected. The guys closed blocks and pressed hard and a lot of work in the gym paid off. Our guys show up to big games and they really played well today.”

The Falcons held just four leads in the entire match, but none for more than one point at a time, and in the deciding second set, East Brunswick took the lead for good at 9-8. Consistent passing and good team communication helped key the Bears’ spurt in the second set, with Weissman, who finished with 29 assists in the contest, in the middle of things.

“It feels great. They beat us twice in the regular season and we knew that it would be a tough match, but we really came out pumped up,” Weissman said. “It’s like Coach Rutz said, ‘Save your best volleyball for today,’ and I think we did that. We jumped on them from the start and seized momentum.”

Rutz saw a level of confidence in his team that he hadn’t seen all season long and with the state tournament starting next week, he believes his squad is clicking at the right time.

“I think we came out the most confident we’ve played all year,” Rutz said. “We’ve toyed around a little bit with different lineups and how weâre going to do things and I think we finally found our starting seven. With those guys on the floor, if they play like this, they shouldn’t be afraid of anyone.”

METUCHEN – The goal for the St. Joseph High School boys volleyball team coming into their Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament semifinal matchup with North Brunswick Thursday afternoon was to hold the fourth-seeded Raiders to 15 points in each set. Consider that goal met to a tee.

Top-seeded St. Joseph led from the outset, overwhelming North Brunswick 2-0 (25-16, 25-14) and holding the Raiders to just 30 points total in the two sets.

The Falcons will take on East Brunswick, a 2-0 winner over Old Bridge, in Saturday’s championship match at J.P. Stevens High School.

Head coach Miguel Cabrita was quick to compliment North Brunswick (16-5) for their effort, but in the end, the skill of the Falcons was just too much.

“They’re a solid team. They have some great ball control all the way around, a couple good hitters on the outside that can put the momentum in their favor,” Cabrita said. “Overall they’re a team that doesn’t seem like they get rattled too easily.”

In fact, North Brunswick hung tough at the start, keeping it within four points for a majority of the time, but towards the middle of the set, St. Joseph (36-3) took command. Kurt MacDonald was everywhere for the Falcons, chasing down errant passes and oncoming spikes, keeping momentum with the home team.

“I think the guys did a great job today. The goal was to keep them around the 15-point mark, which we did,” Cabrita said. “But they did well and really held strong. The passing was a little shaky in the beginning, so that’s one of the things we talked about in the timeouts, but they picked that up. The defense was great and our hitters can produce, so as long as we get the ball to the setter, it’s easy money for us.”

Sean Dacey converted a pair of aces in the second set and MacDonald teed up consecutive serves that weren’t returned to put the contest out of reach. The size differential between the two team’s front lines was evident throughout and it was something that North Brunswick couldn’t make up for with outside shots. Sean Finan and Thomas Burrell combined to stop a bevy of Raiders’ shots from becoming threatening ones and Greg Vajtay also contributed as a key blocker in the contest.

St. Joseph has now reached the championship of the GMCT six seasons in a row, but the Falcons’ last title came back in 2008. In order to complete their mission of reclaiming the top spot in the conference, Cabrita stressed that it’s going to take every member of the squad playing their best.

“It’s going to be all-out team play,” he said. “The last couple of years, it’s been unforeseen circumstances that have mentally taken our guys out of the game, but I think this is one of the more solid teams that we’ve had in the 19 years that I’ve been here. It’s ours to lose; if they don’t do what they need to do, they’re giving it away.”

St. Joseph and East Brunswick met twice in the regular season, with the Falcons taking both matches and the last time that they met in the GMCT final was in 2009, when East Brunswick won their sixth title. The two teams have been going at one another all season long for bragging rights in the GMC, but Saturday’s final will be a grudge match to decide it once and for all.

“East Brunswick is solid all-around,” Cabrita said. “It’s just a matter of matching up on that given day. If we’re on our ‘A’ game, I have a confidence that our guys can pull it off.”

St. Joseph High School’s boys volleyball team has been to the Greater Middlesex Conference championship matches five straight years, but have failed to take home the championship trophy since last winning in 2008.

Again this year the Falcons are the top seed and, after eliminating eighth-seeded Edison in the quarterfinals, will once again look to claim the elusive title.

St. Joseph (35-3), led by the Garden State’s leading assist man in Sean Dacey and the state’s leader in digs, Kurt MacDonald, has been on a roll, losing just once since the calendar turned to May.

They’ll take on the darkhorse of the tournament, fourth-seeded North Brunswick, at 4 p.m. in Metuchen. The Raiders received little resistance from fifth-seeded Woodbridge in the quarterfinals, as they cruised 25-14, 25-9. North Brunswick is 16-4 so far this season and has what it takes to hang with St. Joseph, according to coach Jim Biolsi.

“We have to pass well so we can run our offense,” Biolsi said. “From what I can tell, they (St. Joseog) have tendencies to jump serve, so we’re going to figure out a way to handle it. We have to have confidence in ourselves going against the top team, because as good as they are, we have to have the mentality that if we play our best, we can win.”

The two teams did not face each other in the regular season, but they did scrimmage in the preseason back in March. Biolsi doesn’t believe that a lack of game experience against St. Joseph will have an affect on his team.

“We just have to have confidence,” he said. “We scrimmaged them back in March, but that’s a long time ago. We certainly are aware of their libero (MacDonald) and he’s somebody that’s going to have a big impact in this game. We’re going to try and avoid him if we can. We just have to be smart in the terms of the shots that we take.”

In the other semifinal, second-seeded East Brunswick (25-3), whose last title came in 2009, will take on third-seeded Old Bridge at 4 p.m. in East Brunswick. The Bears shrugged off rival South Brunswick 2-0 in the quarterfinals and took both regular-season meetings from Old Bridge this year. East Brunswick, which took home GMCT titles in succession from 2003-07, hasn’t been to the finals since winning their sixth title in ‘09.

Old Bridge, which received little resistance from sixth-seeded Piscataway, has taken the title in two of the last three seasons. Their trio of stars, Adian Albrecht, Steven Bonilla and Junior Oboh, present a big challenge for East Brunswick.