Volleyball playoffs: Cape Tech pulls off massive seed upset, Lower sweeps – teams to face each other in S.J. quarterfinal round Wednesday

Posted: November 2nd 2026

The players, coaches and managers from the Cape May Tech girls volleyball team are all smiles after pulling off an upset win in the second round of the state playoffs.

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

CapeAtlanticLive.com

A local girls volleyball team is going to advance to at least the South Jersey Group I semifinal round.

Area rivals Cape May Tech and Lower Cape May will face off with one another Wednesday in the quarterfinal round after each won second-round games on Monday.

Cape May Tech, the 14th seed in the tournament, pulled off a massive upset by slipping past No. 3 Bard, 3-0. Game scores were 25-19, 10-25, 22-25, 25-21, 15-10.

Lower Cape May, seeded sixth, topped No. 11 Roselle Park at home, 3-0, Game scores were 25-20, 29-27 and 25-19.

Lower will host Wednesday’s match against Cape Tech at 4:30 p.m.

Cape May Tech endured a whirlwind day. Their bus somehow drove into Manhattan before turning around and driving back to Bard’s campus in Newark. The team finally arrived at the gym at the scheduled start time of 4 p.m., warmed up quickly and played the match against a team that entered with a 17-10 record. After falling behind by two games to one, Tech rallied over the final two games to secure the victory.

Brianna Knights posted 17 kills, 10 digs and seven serving aces and Emma Oravits dished 31 assists and posted five serving aces to lead the Hawks in the win. Noelia Shaffer added eight kills.

The Tech girls volleyball team became the first program in school history to win two state playoff matches or games in the same season. Tech beat Dayton, 3-1, in the first round last week. The victory also clinched a winning season for the Hawks (14-12).

Lower, which enjoyed a first-round bye, won three reasonably close games to sweep Roselle Park. Adeline Pacevich recorded 26 assists, Ava Riggins posted 21 kills and Harley Siner had 14 serving points, including seven aces, to lead Lower Cape May (17-7). 

Lower Cape May and Cape May Tech faced one another earlier this season. Lower Cape May posted a 2-0 victory (25-5, 25-20) on Sept. 4.

Both teams were champions of their respective conferences within the Cape-Atlantic League this fall, Lower taking top honors in the National Conference and Cape May Tech winning the United Conference.