By Rich Fisher, Contributing Editor
The St. John Vianney, Holmdel, boys volleyball team took the court for its final set of the season.
The Lancers had taken a 2-0 lead over Hoboken in the NJSIAA Group I final at South Brunswick High School on June 9, and now the match was tied 2-2.
With a red-hot team on the other side of the net, all that was on the line was a state championship and undefeated season.
Junior defensive specialist George Farah glanced over at senior outside hitter Isaiah Boone.
“I said ‘I’m getting a little nervous.’ And he goes, ‘Me too,’” Farah said. “I said ‘OK maybe we gotta reset this a little bit and get our head where our feet are.’”
Head, feet, legs and arms all got back into it as SJV set Boone up for numerous kills enroute to a 15-12 third-set victory and winning their second state crown in four years. They also matched the girls team, which won it all in the fall.
It capped a 26-0 season as the Lancers achieved perfection, which was matched the next day when the SJV softball team completed its own unbeaten campaign with a state crown.
“I could have coached a hundred years and never in my wildest dreams would I think I’d have a season like this,” said coach Jessica Gadaleta, who is assisted by her husband, Brian, and Kylie Preston. “To George’s credit, he had the best serve receive on the team that night. He was passing nails. We got the passing back and once that element fell back into place the foundation was strong again and Isaiah was able to take over.”
Boone had 27 kills and 18 service points in the five sets, while senior Dominick Blunda collected 62 assists and 10 digs. Junior Justin Togans and senior Troy Sheerin each had 16 kills and Sheerin added 21 digs. Farah had 10 kills and 25 service points, while senior Alex Cardenas had 13 digs.
SJV won its first two sets, 25-15 and 25-22, before Hoboken won 25-18 and 25-20.
“The first set they breezed, the second set was a little tougher and sometimes they had this look on their face like the dog that caught the car and they didn’t know what to do with it,” Gadaleta said. “To Hoboken’s credit the coach turned the dial a little bit to change the match-up for us, and that was effective for them.”
SJV also had to go five sets to beat Southern in the Shore Conference Tournament final. In that one each team kept trading sets whereas Hoboken had taken total control.
“I think our heads got a little fat,” Farah said. “We were just looking ahead because we only needed one more set and Hoboken was resilient.”
The junior said Gadaleta delivered one of her famous inspirational speeches.
“I just said, ‘You need to remember who you are. We have been here before, we have played giants before and now all you need to do is go out and execute the way you need to,’” she said. “We decided to turn the dial to see if we can get an advantageous match-up once again and it was a little about calming down our serve receive. Once our serve receive goes, everything else kind of goes with it.”
With that taken care of the Lancers made history. The fact that they did so without a blemish made it more special – even though their coach was hoping for a loss.
“As a coach this was kind of my nightmare scenario,” she said with a laugh. “I scheduled a bunch of top 20 opponents in hopes that they would lose, because I didn’t want them going into the state tournament with that kind of pressure.”
But because several of those matches were cancelled, SJV was still perfect entering the states.
“For me as a coach it added a lot of pressure, but they seemed pretty calm, cool and collected,” Gadaleta said. “And I’m glad my schedule didn’t work out because they were able to finish 26-0.”
Farah said the team followed the coaches’ philosophy of not letting the big picture overwhelm the task at hand.
“Coach said ‘Don’t get fat on your own success,’ which was our slogan,” he said. “So, we tried to take it one step at a time even though we knew we were gonna have a pretty darn good season. We tried to not look ahead.”
Other players sharing in the title were seniors Dominick Fuoco, Gavin Dorfer and Zachary Marshall, juniors Gavin Gearmore, Evan Fernandez, Trey Gerstmyer, Dylan Pino, Christian Saulon, Justin Togans and Nicholas Winfrey, and sophomores Luke Angeles and Ethan Eddleston.
While it was the second straight crown for some of the seniors, it was the first for Farah. He watched his brother Jack win it in 2023.
“He gave me a little mentorship,” Farah said. “He told me the pressure is gonna be there a little bit, the crowd is gonna be rowdy. But you gotta settle in, do what you do every time when the bleachers are pushed in (for practice).”
Gadaleta, whose team is comprised of numerous multi-sport athletes, loved the way it prepared for the pressure.
“The weeks leading up to it we were certainly nervous, but the players were able to find that intersection of intensity and joy,” she said. “We told them it’s gonna be a grueling match, you need to play with speed and focus but you also need to just have fun because it’s your last high school sporting match.”
As for the returning underclassmen, what are the hopes? In reference to the seniors, all Farah could say was, “They definitely set the bar high.”