Biggest Takeaways from Round 1 of State
Round 1 for a majority of the sectional tournaments are complete. Some teams have moved on while others their season has come to an unfortunate end. So let’s take a look some of the biggest takeaways from Round 1. A…
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Continue ReadingRound 1 for a majority of the sectional tournaments are complete. Some teams have moved on while others their season has come to an unfortunate end. So let’s take a look some of the biggest takeaways from Round 1.
A Season of Parody Continues
As we have embarked through a season where upsets have become more regular and top teams have faltered. One could assume this trend would continue in the sectional tournaments and that it did. The upsets may not have been to top contenders in the sectional tournaments but there were several double digit seeds who took center stage in some monster upsets.
North Arlington stunned West Caldwell Tech 2-0 in their first round match. North Arlington is a 10 seed in the North 2 section of Group 1. They took control early in a dominant first set and held off West Caldwell Tech in a tight second.
Moorestown the 14 seed in the Central section of Group 3 stunned Iselin Kennedy in a three-set thriller. Moorestown is a team many had no clue how they would do in this tournament only playing 3 regular season games coming into the tournament. They had their own COVID pause so nobody knew what would happen. A remarkable victory.
Lastly, the last upset to look at, we had West Orange as the 13 seed in North 1 section of Group 4 took down North Bergen 2 sets to none. West Orange was a squad where some had high hopes for this season. They got off to a rocky start but may have finally found their stride. The parody of this tournament will continue in my opinion.
Top Sectional Contenders Ease Through
Not many of the top teams who are in the running to win their sectional tournaments and whom I see as favorites had to play in the first round. Those who did, did so with ease. Let’s look at some of those squads.
Bogota, who is an 11 seed due to lack of games, took care of business in round 1 against Kinnelon. They are clearly the favorites in North 1, Group 1. Potentially can be the best team in the state.
Other teams that were in play: Mendham, Williamstown, Southern, West Windsor-Plainsboro South, Midland Park, etc. all took care of business. None of the section contenders even dropped a set in their matches and many of them won convincingly.
Alas, I hardly see their round 2 matchups to go as smoothly as the competition gets more fierce the more you advance in the tournament.
Many thought we Wouldn’t Get Here
My final takeaway is that we are here. The State Tournament is underway! It may look different and the season took place in the Spring instead of the Fall but we made it. Will it go smoothly? We can only hope but everyone should be grateful and thankful to everyone who helped get us here to this moment.