Falcons cap 43-win season with a state title
St. Joseph's volleyball team defeats St. Peter's Prep in two games
BY SHAWN LAYTON Staff Writer
Anear-perfect season came to a perfect end last week when the St. Joseph's High School volleyball teamdefeated St. Peter's Prep of JerseyCity in theNJSIAA Volleyball Championship. For the Falcons, it was their 43rd straight win and improved their season record to 43-1.

"Everyone stepped up his game," St. Joe's head coachMiguel Cabrita said. "It was the best match the team played this season."

St. Joe's started strong and jumped out to an eight-point lead in the first game. The Falcons eventually cruised to a 25-14 victory in the opening game.

"We came out really strong and served well right fromthe start," Cabrita said. "Our serving stayed tough and we got big games out of Paul Konopacki and Marcin Midura. Eddie Rossiter was super strong."

The Falcons continued to play with determination and brought home their second state title in the past three years with a 25-18 win in game two.

St. Joe's advanced to the finals via a quarterfinalwin overCollingswood and local rival East Brunswick in the semifinals.

"We played well against Collingswood," Cabrita said. "We hadn't seen them before this season, which is a rarity when you get this far into the state tournament. They put up a decent fight."

The semifinal match against East Brunswick was the fourthmeeting between the two schools this season. The only blemish on the Falcons' record was a loss to East Brunswick on opening day. St. Joe's beat the Bears in this year's GreaterMiddlesex Conference Tournament finals prior to the semifinal victory last week.

St. Joe's topped the Bears a third time this season with a 2-0 victory. Despite trailing at one point in the opening game by seven points, the Falcons rallied to take the opening game 26-24.

The opening-game victory shifted the momentum to St. Joseph's side of the net, and East Brunswick never regained it. The Bears opened the second game with a service error, which set the tone for the remainder of the contest.

"East Brunswick was a little rattled," Cabrita said. "Wewere strong, and everyone did what he needed in that second game."

Led by Midura's six kills, the Falcons took game two 25-18 to dethrone the 2007 state champs and advance to the finals.

The team's 43 victories not only marked a new school record and broke the previous record for wins in a season once held by Southern, but the folks at NJSIAA informed Cabrita that 43 wins was the most in a season by any team, in any sport in state history.

"NJSIAA looked at its records as far back as they could and found 43 wins to be a new record," Cabrita said. "It was a nice surprise."

It was the perfect ending to the high school careers of the team's nine seniors. Of this year's state championship roster, only sophomore Bobby O'Grady and junior Dan Zaccariello will be back in 2009.