Date

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Time/Outcome

Records

Our Varsity Team Journal

Our JV Team Journal

May 12, Cherry Hill West - The Lions completed their American Division schedule today with their 2nd 2-0 win over the Braves of W'town in 4 days.  Although the West defense was at times lethargic, OHs Matt Parisi and Bobby Malaczewski were able to carry the day with 9 and 7 kills respectively while Bobby and Liam Howley kept the floor clean with 14 and 13 digs.  Senior setter Andrew Nop, now a model of consistency, tallied his usual, outstanding 23 assists in the process.

May 11, Pennsauken - The Lions completed a season sweep of the Indians with a 2-0 win today.  The connection between setter Andrew Nop (23 assists) and OH Matt Parisi (10 kills) was clicking throughout the match.

May 10, Moorestown - The long-awaited doubleheader between the squads perceived to be the 2nd and 3rd best teams in SJ resulted in a draw today.  The Lions headed into a noisy hornets' nest in the first match as an large, coordinated M'town crowd composed mostly of students carried their team's attack to a 26-24, 25-20 win.  Although West was not intimidated by the crowd's energy, the heightened adrenalin levels did appear to lead to poor attacking choices and defensive indecision for the team.  After a senior farewell ceremony between matches for the Quakers, a noticeable drop in energy for the hosts allowed the Lions to control the 2nd match from start to finish with superior passing, defense and blocking, resulting in a dominating 25-18, 25-17 win.  West's senior middles, Rahul Desai (4 solo blocks and 1 block assist) and Liam Howley (3 solo blocks and 1 block assist), completely smothered the M'town attack in match 2 while setter Andrew Nop chipped in 48 assists for the day.

May 9, Williamstown - The Lions started off their most difficult week of the season with a great road effort to defeat the always tough Braves of Williamstown, 2-0.  The front row consistently set well-timed, sealed blocks that limited the effectiveness of Willytown's best attackers, Chris Joseph and Arsenio Silva.  Liam Howley (9 kills) and Matt Parisi (6 kills) led the attack while Rahul Desai and sophomore RS Luca Taormina each added 1 solo block and 2 block assists.

May 6, Camden - After a brief wait for the conclusion of the ceremony in which the Camden gymnasium was dedicated to and renamed for legendary basketball coach Clarence Turner, the Lions defeated the Panthers in their quickest match of the year.  Senior Matt Shanker and junior Mike Falco led the way with 2 kills each.

May 5, Cherry Hill West - The Lions raised their record to 12-3 with an interdivisional 2-0 win over the improved visiting Hermits from St. Augustine Prep.  Senior middle Rahul Desai (5 kills, 4 solo blocks and 11 digs) turned in an especially outstanding match and helped the team run away early with game 2.

May 4, Cherry Hill East - For the 2nd time in team history and 2nd straight year, the Lions concluded a season sweep of their Cougar neighbors with a convincing 2-0 win.  Liam Howley's 10 kills, 2 solo blocks and 8 aggressive digs along with setter Andrew Nop's 18 assists and great decisions led the way.  The victory brings the Lions into a tie for second in the American Division with Williamstown who the team visits first on Monday the 9th and then hosts on Wednesday the 18th.

May 2, Turnersville - In what could be considered a classic blessing in disguise, the illness and absence of big-hitting OH Matt Parisi created a necessary shuffling of the line-up and a Lion team with heightened anxiety as they headed into Township's gym to face a team bent on revenge.  As a result, the team discovered new things about itself with many needing to "step things up" for the Lions to complete a season sweep of  the Minutemen.  In a way reminiscent of Sixer teams that win without AI, the team did indeed rise to the occasion as OH Bobby Malaczewski played perhaps the best match of his career with 8 kills, 2 aces and 7 digs to complement the 11 kill, 3 block and 9 dig effort of middle Liam Howley.  Middle Rahul Desai also had a great match, adding 7 kills and 15 aggressive digs from the back row.  Setter Andrew Nop also ran the show perfectly to allow the West attack to not skip a beat, distributing the ball masterfully to the right hitter at the right time to accumulate 25 assists.  Sophomore RS Luca Taormina added 2 kills and smart blocking positioning on Township's hard-hitting OH Drew Fagundus while senior DS Matt Shanker should be commended for stepping into an unknown rotation spot to provide solid passing and defense.

April 27, Voorhees - Perhaps for matches against Eastern, the Lions could use this phrase to sum up their performances:  "Familiarity breeds anxiety, not contempt".  Instead of letting the rivalry with a well-known Eastern team fuel their fire and despite a solid, crisp two weeks of volleyball leading up to the match, the Lions once again let negative emotions and tightness influence their play to lead to another 2-0 loss to the Vikings.  Eastern used better passing, defense, setting and consistent exploitation of their height in the middle with Larry Chatman to win the match.
     A lengthy team meeting at practice the next day led to the following 2 important realizations by the team's members:
►This will likely be the last time that many of them will play on an organized, talented team like ours and that nothing would be worse than remembering their final month together with great regret about how good they could have been.
►The time has come for all of the team's members to learn how to let go of the immediate past while on the court by not letting the negative emotions of mistakes and self-imposed pressure create more bad decisions during the rest of the match.  Having "short memories" is the only way our seniors in particular, a group that could be considered the single most talented class in team history since `97, can let their great skills shine through on a consistent basis.

April 26, Cherry Hill West - A Township Minuteman team hit hard by graduation came to West and the Lions took advantage of the team's inexperience by serving and attacking aggressively to win 2-0.  The Nop-Parisi connection was clicking to the tune of 10 kills for OH Matt Parisi along with 8 for middle Liam Howley and 4 each for middle Rahul Desai and OH Bobby Malaczewski.  Rahul also added 3 deep floater aces and setter Andrew Nop tallied 23 assists.

April 22, Cherry Hill West - Although the always well-coached Indians of Pennsauken tallied some impressive blocks, West's attack gradually became overpowering en route to a 2-0 Lions win.  Liam Howley and Matt Parisi led the charge with 12 and 11 kills respectively off of Andrew Nop's 25 assists.

April 18, Deptford - Although not opposed to hustling, the second-year Cheetahs of GCIT fell to West by a score of 2-0.  Varsity newcomers Bobby Malaczewski (2 kills, 5 digs) and sophomore RS Luca Taormina (2 kills) made significant contributions.

April 15, Cherry Hill West - The always emotional clash between East and West didn't disappoint attending Lion fans as the team used a significant advantage in size and experience to carry them to a 25-15, 25-21 win.  The Cougars had no answer in the middle for Liam (15 kills) and Matt (7 kills) on the outside.  Rahul Desai again was the defensive leader, totaling 3 blocks along with 6 digs.  Andrew Nop continued to improve his setting proficiency with 25 assists.

April 13, Mullica Hill - The vastly-improved, second year Pioneers of Coach Sweeten's alma mater provided a stiff challenge for the Lions but more consistent passing and an increasingly effective attack from all positions carried West to a 2-0 victory.  Liam Howley and Matt Parisi each chipped in 9 kills off of Andrew Nop's 20 assists and Rahul Desai added 2 solo blocks and 2 block assists to lead the defensive effort.

April 9, Manahawkin - A trip across the state proved to be a fruitful one for the Lions.  The team started the day with a 2-0 win over Collingswood but quickly found itself down a game to a scrappy Christian Brothers team in their second match.  An emotional huddle afterward created a team recommitted to aggressive passing and defense that led to a much more potent attack and West wins in games 2 and 3 by scores of 25-18 and 25-16.  Senior middle Liam Howley led the way with 15 kills along with 8 from Matt Parisi and six apiece from Rahul Desai and Bobby Malaczewski.  The final match of the day against #6 Southern went well until the latter part of game one when Southern OH Ryan Frederickson began to consistently hit over West blockers, resulting in a 25-20, 25-15 Ram win despite 13 and 6 kills respectively from Liam and Matt.  Senior setter Andrew Nop had a great day, accumulating 62 total assists in the three matches.

April 8, Cherry Hill West - It was not a good day for the varsity Lions as the loss of sophomore OH Tim Pao to injury one hour before the match in phys. ed. class combined with tentative play in part because of unknown, new responsibilities for many to result in a 2-0 loss to rival Eastern in the team's first American Division match.  Although the Vikings played well, the Lions' lack of aggressiveness and confidence once again produced poor passing and defense.  This match was filled with crucial lessons to be filed away for future reference and usefulness.

April 6, Sicklerville - The varsity squad completed a sweep of the "Techs" today with a 2-0 win over the Warriors of CCT.  Despite scrappy defense from the hosts, sophomore OH Tim Pao (6 kills) and senior RS Bobby Malaczewski (4 kills) helped carry the team to victory.  Junior DS Money Hua also added 7 digs.

April 4, Cherry Hill West - The more experienced Lions used their size and hitting power to defeat the Tornadoes of Penn Tech today.  Seniors Matt Parisi and Liam Howley led the way with 8 and 7 kills respectively off of senior setter Andrew Nop's 19 assists.  Senior middle Rahul Desai added 3 aces and 6 digs.

April 2, Voorhees - The Eastern Viking Invitational proved to be the useful but tough measuring stick it always is for the varsity Lions.  Solid passing and defense never became regular enough to allow the Lions' attack to come to life, resulting in a 2-6 pool play record and exclusion from the tourney's playoffs.  The team's shortened scrimmage season and a wet March that also reduced practice time are partly to blame and as in the past, more touches and competition to come will certainly result in more consistency and confidence.  Go HERE for complete tournament results.

April 18, Deptford - The Lions avenged their loss against East by defeating GCIT in 2 games.  Anthony Viola and Jeff Wallin led the team setting.  Nick Ricciardi and Jeff led the team with 3 aces.    Alfonso Larrinago and Jonathan Santiago, who showed tremendous improvement in his hitting,  led the Lions with 2 kills.  Michael Falco had the team's lone block on a nice 2 handed block.  Next up for the Lions, Pennsauken on Friday.

April 15, Cherry Hill - The Lions had a tough loss against cross-town rival Cherry Hill East.  Although we were home, we came out looking tight and made some uncharacteristic errors that led to easy points for East.  However, the Lions kept fighting, after being down 15-7, the Lions started playing better and made a major comeback.  However, in the end, they came up short with a 25-23 loss.  Moneywang Hua played very well leading the team in kills, but the defense and communication wasn't good enough to win.  In the 2nd game, silly errors and lack of talking again allowed East to get out to a sizable lead.  Once the Lions settled down, they stayed with East.  The match was a good lesson for the team, teaching them that you have to play smart the whole time against every team if you want to come out with the victory.  It will help us play well in the JV tournament on Saturday the 23rd.

April 8, Cherry Hill - In the Lion's first big home match, they provided good passing and defense against a very good Eastern squad.  The Lions jumped out to a 5 point lead early, and never looked back.  Besides good team defense, the key to the first game was some nice hitting by Mike Falco.  In the second game, the team proved to be timid and not communicating.  Eastern got out to a big 10 point lead.  The Lions fought back a few points, but in the end, the early lead was too much to overcome and Eastern won.  In the third game, the Lions proved that they would not repeat last year's result of losing to Eastern.  Again, good defense and passing, with the addition of a few more Falco kills and a very timely Anthony Viola dump to win the match, led the team to a well earned victory.  It was a very big win against such a good team this early in the year, but we need to continue our hard work so that we can continue to improve!

April 6, Sicklerville - Against CCT, the first team remained in control the whole game with steady defense and passing by everyone.  In the second game, the Lions continued their winning ways getting several nice kills from Dave Doktor and a nice block by Bill Farley.  Jordan McIntyre added some interesting tight rope walking to stay out of the net several times and the lions completed the 2 game sweep.

April 4, Cherry Hill - Against Penn Tech, the Lions learned early never to underestimate the competition.  The first game was won easily by the Lions.  In the second game, the team was not being aggressive with their play and found themselves down 15-5 but they started playing better and made a comeback, but fell short 25-21.  In the 3rd game, the Lions jumped out to a 5-0 lead, only to find themselves make mistakes and watch Penn Tech run off 7 straight points.  After gathering themselves, the Lions fought hard to earn a 16-14 victory and a match win.