After an uneven 3-3 start to the year, Montville's self-described slow burn has turned into a full-on heater. The Mustangs went on a seven-game winning streak, and even after that streak was snapped on Tuesday at the hands of West Morris, it takes a 10-4 record into the Morris County Tournament semifinals on Wednesday.
At Monday's Dig Pink charity game, the final game of that win streak was earned in three, with Montville dropping the first set, 25-17, before winning 25-21 and 25-19 in the final two sets to secure the victory. Cassandra Chauhan had 12 kills and 18 digs, while Maana Parikh had 11 kills, 10 digs, and four aces. Lena Unice had 26 assists and three aces, and Kaitlyn Chen led the defensive effort with 27 digs.
“I said in the beginning of the year that we were a slow burn," Maiello said. "We are definitely heating up now. The last couple of weeks, we had some really good match-ups coming into this match. I think coming into this match, we knew they were ranked number one in power points for their league, and we beat them in the semis last year to go to the finals. I think they came in way more fired up than we did. We knew they were going to have really good hitters and blockers. They were stuffing us all over the place, they were hitting at us, and I think we were down. I said to my girls, listen, you’ve got to beat good teams. They wanted it, they wanted it more and they executed. We didn’t execute in the first game, the second game we started executing a little bit better but made some mistakes, and the third game I feel sealed the deal.”
Maiello added, “My outside hitter Maana (Parikh) in my opinion had a very good game. I think all around, my girls took a turn making mistakes, and then all took a turn tidying it up. It was a big team effort today. We were hitting all around. We had to move the ball around so they couldn’t block us. Cass (Chauhan) had some good swings at the end. Maana swung well from set one all the way through set three. Our serving, we had some aces in there.”
While it fell in three sets to West Morris on Tuesday, it will turn around as the second-seeded Mustangs will face third-seeded Roxbury in the semifinals of the Morris County Tournament on Wednesday at 5 pm in Randolph. Montville has its eyes on its second county title in three seasons.
“I feel good (about the tournament)," Maiello said. "But with these girls, they just keep having to work. We have to earn every one of our wins. I said to the girls, listen, if we keep making mistakes, Lyndhurst is not going to hand us the game. We need to earn our games. I really like that they’re learning that yes, we have to earn our wins. The mindset is there for my girls. Now it’s all about the execution. So it’s about executing, and fine-tuning, and not making errors.”
In addition to the team's success on the scoreboard, the team has had some individual milestones which have been hit this year. Lauren Kideckel got her 100th career block in a Sept. 23 win over Mendham, while Kaitlyn Chen reached the 500 dig milestone and Maana Parikh hit 100 career kills all this season.
“I am really proud to achieve this accomplishment,” Kideckel said of the 100 block milestone. “While volleyball is a team sport I love being able to know I can contribute at my position. I am grateful for my amazing teammates and supportive coaches for working with me daily to help develop my skills which enabled me to hit this milestone.”
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