Andrew Constant – Sports Writer

St. Joseph’s Bryan Rafano connects in front of two Southern defenders in Thursday’s Tournament of Champions Final. Photo by: Robert Ward

MONMOUTH JCT. — The victory that mattered most this season escaped the St. Joseph High School boys volleyball team on Thursday.

Despite winning more matches this season than any other squad in the state, the Falcons (41-5) didn’t execute like they have all season and Southern Regional took full advantage, taking home the NJSIAA Tournament of Champions title 2-0 (25-22, 25-20) at South Brunswick High School.

“We made too many mistakes,” St. Joseph coach Miguel Cabrita said. “We had some miscommunication and when we did have some great defensive plays, we couldn’t execute and put them away for a point. It was frustrating.”

The duo of Kyle Ficken and Mike Gesicki led the way for Southern, teaming up at the net to block numerous St. Joseph shots and thwart some jump-serves of the Falcons. Gesicki was the most notable player on the court for either team, flying through the air to connect on swings and rising well above the net with both arms extended for blocks and tips.

“Killing the ball is one of the things we do the best and I don’t know if our guys were hyping themselves up too much in their head or what, but it was a back-and-forth game all the way through,” Cabrita said. “Even in the last set I had a feeling the guys were going to get it together and climb back into the match, but the back-to-back-to-back errors sucked the life out of us and it’s tough for high school players to bounce back mentally from that.”

In the second set, St. Joseph used a 7-0 run to turn an 11-7 deficit into a 13-11 lead, but Southern countered with a 7-0 run of their own to seize control of the set and ultimately the match. Cabrita thought his team would turn in one of their classic come-from-behind victories, much like they did against East Brunswick in the Sectional Final, but the pressure from the Rams was too much to overcome.

“We kept talking about how we did the same thing to East Brunswick in the sectional final,” he said. “How we’d lost the first set and came back and got fired up for the second and third sets. That’s what I was hoping for today. Things just didn’t go our way.”

The jump-serves that had gotten St. Joseph to this point bit them against Southern. Michael Hilyard and Ray Kowalski served into the net on multiple occasions and the usually sure-handed Sean Finan spiked his final serve of the season into the net, which gave the ball back to Southern at championship point.

Ficken and Gesicki rose as one in the left side of the Rams’ formation and blocked a St. Joseph swing right onto the floor, setting off a wild celebration with the throngs of students and fans that made the hour-plus drive from Ocean County.

“I’m so proud of our guys for a fantastic season,” Cabrita said. “They had a lot of accolades thrown their way and I wish they could have received the ultimate reward today, because I thought this was a group that was so deserving of it. They worked so hard, beyond belief, and they did more than we even asked of them.”

St. Joseph’s Michael Hilyard connects in Tuesday’s Tournament of Champions semifinal against Livingston. Photo by: Augusto F. Menezes.

In search of the school’s fourth state championship, the St. Joseph High School boys volleyball team will battle Southern in the NJSIAA Tournament of Champions final tonight at South Brunswick High School.

St. Joseph (41-4), the Central champ, took care of the North 2 winners, Livingston, in straight sets Tuesday behind the strong play of Sean Dacey and Sean Finan. The duo set the tone with strong serves and powerful kills, dispatching the Lancers after getting off to a rough start.

The Falcons, who have played more games than any other team in New Jersey this spring, won the Greater Middlesex Conference regular-season title and exacted revenge against East Brunswick in the NJSIAA Central sectional final to reach the T of C.

Southern, the South champion, defeated North 1 winner Fair Lawn 2-0 in a rematch of last season’s T of C final. The Rams (35-4) haven’t lost since May 11 when they traveled to Metuchen to take part in the Super Six Showcase hosted by St. Joseph. Since that day, Southern has dropped just two sets, and neither of those came in the postseason.

The two teams matched up in the Super Six Showcase, with Southern emerging victorious 2-1 (25-21, 23-25, 25-15). On that day, Luke King registered 41 assists and the duo of Mike Gesicki and Brandon Lee combined for 20 kills. Dacey led St. Joseph with 32 assists and libero Kurt MacDonald dug out 17 balls for the Falcons.

In the other regular-season matchup between the two schools, St. Joseph won in three sets 2-1 (25-21, 27-29, 25-20) behind Finan, who registered 19 kills.

Finan knows that if St. Joseph plays like they did against Livingston on Tuesday, they won’t be too successful against Southern.

“If we come out like we did today (Tuesday), it will be tough to win,’’ Finan said. “So we need to come out even harder, but we just try and focus on what’s happening on our side of the court. We have seen them two or three times so we know each other pretty well.’’

St. Joseph coach Miguel Cabrita said he and his coaching staff wouldn’t do too much tweaking before tangling with Southern. Instead, he’ll try and get his squad ready for their biggest challenge of the season.

“There’s really not too much any team can do at this point,’’ Cabrita said. “There are some minor tweaks and adjustments that can be made, but we’re just going to try and get our guys in the right repetition and not try and introduce anything crazy or new. We just need to make sure they’re mentally focused and ready to play.’’

Since the two schools haven’t faced each other in nearly a month, Cabrita knows he’ll need to go back and remember what worked and what didn’t for St. Joseph against Southern this season.

“We’ve gone back-and-forth with them and we just need to see how our strengths match up with their weaknesses and do the best from there,’’ Cabrita said.

St. Joseph’s Sean Finan and Greg Vatjay go up for a block during Tuesday’s Tournament of Champions semifinal against Livingston. Photo by: Augusto F. Menezes.

MONMOUTH JCT. — When the St. Joseph High School boys volleyball team is focused on the task at hand, they’re very difficult to handle.

Despite the tough play of Livingston in the first set of Tuesday’s NJSIAA Tournament of Champions semifinal, the top-seeded Falcons rallied and moved closer to their first state title since 2008 with a 2-0 (26-24, 25-16) victory.

They will play Southern Regional, a 2-0 winner over Fair Lawn, in Thursday’s final.

The Falcons got a push from the North 2 champions in the opening set, but it wouldn’t have been so close if not for unforced errors in the serving department.

In last Friday’s Central sectional final, the jump-serves of Michael Hilyard and Ray Kowalski won St. Joseph the match over East Brunswick. But against Livingston (26-5), each of the seniors hit the net with their first serve, handing the ball back to the Lancers.

“In the first set we tried to go out there and go too hard too fast, we couldn’t get a serve into the court and we were trying to serve real aggressive and that too some momentum from us so we were getting frustrated and it impacted our hitters,” St. Joseph coach Miguel Cabrita said.

The two teams were tied nine times in the opening set, but St. Joseph (41-4) picked up the momentum they needed when Sean Finan delivered a powerful kill to put the Falcons up 20-18.

Bryan Rafano thwarted a Livingston surge with a point of his own and then Finan finished it off with a thunderous kill at the net.

“Sean has always been our go-to guy and we rely on him to be cool, calm and collected,” Cabrita said. “He always holds his composure and as long as his passing is on the offense comes to him, so we relied on him a lot today.”

Finan finished with 11 kills in the contest and also added four digs.

“I was just trying to be fired up and keep everybody else fired up,” he said. “When our energy is up, it usually shows in the way that we play, so I just try and go around and tell all the guys to stay focused on every single point individually.”

From the opening serve of the second set, St. Joseph was indeed focused, leading from the start behind Finan and setter Sean Dacey, the latter of whom now has a state-best 1,170 assists this season. Finan picked up a pair of aces in the second set and Dacey chipped in one of his own to lead the Falcons’ surge.

“In the second set, we scrapped the aggressive serving and we stuck to what we know is consistent; serve the ball tough, but nothing crazy, so we at least have a chance on defense,” Cabrita said.

Dacey led the Falcons with 25 assists in the contest and libero Kurt MacDonald recorded 17 digs to up his state-best total to 560.

“Kurt’s always been that catalyst that gets the whole team motivated and he’ll come up with some of those big plays that you’ll see,” Cabrita said.

Finan knows that his squad will need to play a much better brand of volleyball if they’re going to win the school’s fourth state title Thursday afternoon. But, the senior noted that it would be such a big accomplishment if this particular Falcons team were able to get the job done.

“It’s very important for us, if we come out like we did today, it will be tough to win. So we need to come out even harder,” Finan said. “We’ve had good teams in the past and we’ve been so close and it would mean everything to get over that hump and win a state championship.”

METUCHEN — For the nine seniors in the St. Jo­seph High School boys volleyball roster, their fourth matchup of the season against East Brunswick was going to be their last home match, regardless of the outcome. The top-seeded Fal­cons made sure that the final time they pulled on their home uniforms would be a memorable one, prevailing in three sets (21-25, 25-17, 25-22) to win the NJSIAA Cen­tral final Friday after­noon.

The Falcons dropped the opening set in front of a raucous crowd that filled every available seat in the St. Joseph gymnasium, but turned it on in the final two sets, behind the stellar play of Michael Hilyard and Ray Kowalski. The pair of seniors took second­seeded East Brunswick out of their rhythm with powerful jump-serves.

“I really just wanted to finish it out and do some damage and help my team and I gave it ev­erything I had,” Hilyard said. “It feels amazing.”

St. Joseph seized con­trol of the match in the middle set, leading the entire way, with Kowal­ski playing a major role. He was directly in­volved in four consecu­tive points as the Fal­cons took a 7-4 lead, ei­ther with a block or a kill, but the Falcons weren’t able to pull away from the Greater Mid­dlesex Conference Tour­nament champions. Dan Leung kept the Bears within striking distance, but a 6-0 run with Hi­lyard serving opened up a six-point lead at 19-13 and gave the home team all the room they need­ed.

“We just stopped be­ing afraid to hit it out of bounds and we really turned up our offense in­stead of just trying to tip the ball up and over the net,” Hilyard said. Kowalski finished off the second set with a powerful kill to set up a dramatic final between the top two teams in the state. East Brunswick took early leads of 1-0, 2-1 and 6-5, but there were 17 ties in the final set, in­cluding consecutive points from 9-16 and 18-22.

One of the biggestplays of the set came when St. Joseph’s Kurt MacDonald dove to his left and one-handed a dig over the net and out of the reach of the entire East Brunswick squad for a point that electrified the standing-room only crowd.

“We’re used to playing matches where we go into a gym and it’s just as loud and there’s probably half a dozen St. Joe’s fans,” St. Joseph coach Miguel Ca­brita said. “And for the guys today, they kept say­ing in timeouts that these people are all here for us. We can’t let them down and I loved hearing that.”

The Bears took the lead at 22-21, but St. Joseph battled back to force the last of the 17 ties at 22-22 before East Brunswick’s Alec Weissman was whis­tled for a net violation. The final two points of the match came on aces from Hilyard, who felt extra motivation to beat the Bears.

“It feels amazing be­cause they’re always our biggest rival, so we re­spect the competition and it was a really great game,” he said.

East Brunswick sur­vived a 5-0 Falcons run in the middle of the first set to take the early lead, be­hind the swinging of Jack Fredricks. The senior converted the final two points of the set, both powerful kills, but the Bears couldn’t seal the deal and advance to next week’s Tournament of Champions.

“The toughest matches are the ones when you drop the first set,” Cabrita said. “The other team has a comfort level and they’re in their wheel­house and they’re not afraid to make mistakes because they have a set under their belt. But our guys held strong and not once did they turn on each other or blame anybody but themselves. I told them that I’m the most proud of this team than I have been in a very long time because they did all the things the coaches asked of them.”

The Falcons will com­pete in Tuesday’s Tourna­ment of Champions at South Brunswick High School against one of the other three sectional champions.

“I have a really good feeling about this year; we haven’t won since 2008 and I’d really like to bring it home my senior year,” Hilyard said.

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.