Boy’s Volleyball Beats JFK Iselin

With the goal of reaching the state tournament, the Summit High School varsity boys volleyball team is making a strong case for making the post season by winning five straight games and defeating its latest opponent, John F. Kennedy High School in Iselin.

"At this point in the season we've been lucky enough to play our first four games at home and come away with wins. It was nice to get our first road win, which is a good sign for this team," said head coach John Ross.

The first match opened strong by Summit as Sam Densen and Joe Callahan surprised the Iselin team with a flurry or terrific serves that often looked like they were going out but curved inbounds at the last second.

A good defensive series by Iselin, who had two good big men along the net, slowed down the Summit attack briefly making the score 15-10. After a kill by Cris Cafiero to get Summit on the board again, Joe Callahan continued his torrid serving by scoring 4 points in a row making the score 20-10.

Garrett Benisch continued to put pressure on Iselin with a nasty block high above the net to score a point and then nailed a hard kill to rack up another point for Summit. Two unforced service errors by Iselin made the score 24 -13.

Roman Delgado sealed the win for Summit in the first match by serving a line drive ace to the Iselin side of the court making the final score 25-13.

The second match proved to be much more competitive as Summit had to make big plays in key moments to try and stay on top.

Iselin came out strong scoring on their first few opportunities and led 3-1. Summit scored a point off a great serve by Luke Shehata followed by a kill and scoring block by Cris Cafiero putting Summit back on top 4-3.  The slim lead was short lived, however. Iselin rallied to take the lead 7-4 which included two points coming off Summit volleys that bounced off the ventilation duct on the ceiling and out of reach.

After a strong scoring shot by Iselin at the net they now led 9-7. The confident Summit team struck back with its own rally with multiple scoring efforts by Sam Densen and Erick Von Haass to give Summit the lead at 12-9. After a great saving dig by Roman Delgado and a point by Joe Callahan and Chris Osmun, the score was 15-12.

A determined Iselin team made another run to tie the score at 15 all.  Points by Cafiero and a great block by Von Haass gave Summit the lead for good at 18-17. Smelling the victory, Summit ran off five more points with Christian Flores serving an ace to wrap up the win 25-20.

Summit's next home game against Watchung Hills Regional is scheduled for Friday at 4 p.m.

-Lou Cafiero