May 31, 2012

Senior outside hitter Kris Kucza (8) had seven kills and three digs for Bayonne. (Photo: Jason Bernstein)

Memorial at Bayonne Boys Volleyball Photo Gallery

BAYONNE – Bayonne may have already defeated Memorial three times this season. But heading into yesterday’s NJSIAA North 2 semifinals showdown, those previous victories, along with the 23 other ones accumulated during a successful regular season and county playoffs, meant absolutely nothing.

That’s just the nature of the “win or go home” reality of the state playoffs.

Like in the other matchups, Bayonne emerged victorious, this time with a 25-18, 25-11 win over its West New York rival.

“We’ve played them three times before, but this is a whole new season now,” Bayonne coach Pat Longo said. “I look at the season and our record is 2-0. We beat St. Peter’s Prep (last Thursday) and we beat Memorial.

“It’s a brand new season right now. What we did previously and in the county doesn’t mean anything. They’re going to be focused and they have everything to win. Memorial had everything to win coming in here. We had everything to lose. It’s a point of staying focused at this point and being ready to play.”

It may have been a new season, but the end result was all too familiar as top-seeded Bayonne (28-5) proved too deep on the offensive end.

Whether it was Kris Kucza on the outside, Hojairy Peralta on the opposite, Damian Bargielski and Jordan Elam in the middle or Elijah Egalite from the back row, fifth-seeded Memorial (19-6) had no answers for the Bayonne offense orchestrated by senior setter Konrad Budny.

“It’s very difficult,” Memorial coach John Wengerter said. “We’re guessing who’s going to get the ball because they have so many strong hitters over there. It’s a lot of guessing on our part. Even our middles, you could see our middles were getting to the blocks too late because you’re really second guessing on who’s going to get the ball.”

“When we get a good pass, (Konrad) has a lot of options,” Longo said. “He can go outside, he can go opposite, he can go middle and he has a hitter in the back row. He has a lot of options if he gets a great pass. Konrad is a tremendous setter, he does a lot of good things with the ball.”

That collection of hitters, along with an aggressive defense at the net proved overwhelming as Bayonne blitzed Memorial with 10-1 run in the second game to make it 18-6 and put to match out of reach.

Three different Bees had kills in the stretch as they also had three key blocks and took advantage of four faults by the Tigers.

“It was everybody getting involved,” said Peralta. “We just came out as a team. They all focus on Kris, everybody focuses on Kris. (For us) it was everybody combining as team and coming together as a family.”

“We just couldn’t get anything started in the second game,” Wengerter said. “I thought we played pretty well in the first game. We stayed with them. We had some strong plays and strong hits. They were on in the second game a lot better than we were.”

Budny led the way 16 assists to go with eight digs and seven service points. Kucza had a team-high seven kills with three digs and four service points. Peralta had five kills, three blocks, four service points and two aces. Bargielski had three kills and two blocks with Egalite and Elam adding two kills apiece. Egalite also had five digs and five service points. Steven Granados chipped in with nine digs.

Elicio Olivares led Memorial with eight digs and seven kills. Inolis Santana had six digs, while Ennis Salah, Sergio Bonilla and Kristian Gutierrez added two kills apiece. Danny Baez chipped in with three blocks.

With the win, Bayonne will host second-seeded Livingston in the North 2 finals on Friday. The teams met in the semifinals a year ago, a match won by Livingston. Bayonne defeated Livingston in the semifinals in 2010.

Livingston advanced to Friday’s championship match after defeating Bridgewater-Raritan.

Memorial's Elicio Olivares had eight digs and seven kills in defeat. (Photo: Jason Bernstein)

Memorial at Bayonne Boys Volleyball Photo Gallery