VIDEO: LCM tops Cape Tech in local volleyball playoff matchup to advance to sectional semifinal round

Posted: November 4th 2026

Lower Cape May's girls volleyball team has advanced to the South Jersey semifinal round after defeating Cape May Tech, 3-0, on Wednesday.

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

CapeAtlanticLive.com

ERMA – A pair of local championship girls volleyball teams faced off in the quarterfinal round of the South Jersey Group I Tournament Wednesday.

A large, boisterous crowd made up of fans from both sides greeted the teams and cheered throughout.

In the end, the team with a bit more experience and depth came out on top as Lower Cape May, the sixth seed in the tournament, swept No. 14 Cape May Tech, 3-0. The game scores were 25-16, 25-8 and 25-11.

Lower Cape May advances to the sectional semifinal round for the second time in three seasons. The Lady Tigers will travel to No. 2 Raritan on Friday, with the winner advancing to next week’s South Jersey title match. Raritan outlasted No. 7 McNair, 3-2, in its quarterfinal match Wednesday.

“Being a Group I school, we don’t have the population to pull from like so many of the other schools we play during the (regular) season,” Lower coach Greta Pacevich said. “So it’s great to see us doing so well when we can play schools more similar to us in size. It means a lot to Lower Cape May and it means a lot to our community. I tell the girls all the time that they should be proud of themselves and proud of where they come from no matter what happens. I’m just so proud of them.”

Adeline Pacevich, the daughter of the head coach, led the way for Lower Cape May (18-7). The senior setter distributed 19 assists to go with seven kills. Junior outside hitter Ava Riggins led the offense with 16 kills. Senior Harley Siner posted 12 serving points, including five aces. Senior Georgia Sutter added 11 serving points and junior Melinda Reeves contributed 10 serving points.

Cape Tech had posted 17 aces in its previous playoff win over Bard, something that concerned the Lower coaching staff entering the match.

“Honestly, I thought we did everything well, but the main thing we worked on coming into this was our serve receive because we saw that Tech had so many aces against Bard,” coach Pacevich said. “Our serve-receive game was huge for us today because it stopped them from going on runs. And then from our side, we were solid. I thought we did a great job of keeping the ball in play and just getting it over to their side.

“When you get this far, you need your stars to step up and they did, but we also had girls who aren’t always in the spotlight do a lot of good things so that was great.”

While the match pitted the champions of the Cape-Atlantic National Conference (Lower) against the champions of the CAL United Conference (Tech), it also represented a celebration of high school girls volleyball, which is still a developing sport in this area.

“I’m so happy for the kids from both teams,” coach Pacevich said. “This is the environment you want to have. There’s nothing worse than having crickets in the gym with no one watching. Volleyball is a growing sport across the country. Our kids are off from school this week, so to see all the kids from Lower and all the kids from Tech come out to watch, it was definitely electric in here. It fueled our team, for sure. I love it for the game and I love it for the kids.”

Despite the loss, Cape May Tech (14-13) enjoyed a historic season. The team set a single-season program record for wins, won its first CAL conference title and became the first sports program in school history to win two state playoff games or matches in the same postseason.

The Hawks’s win over Bard one round earlier was a major upset of the third-seeded team in the section.

“No matter the outcome of today, for us to be in this position after winning two playoff games – this game was just a bonus for us,” Tech coach Emma Zurawski said. “We made history and that’s all that matters. Our girls should all be so proud of themselves. What happened today didn’t define our season; everything we did to get here did.
“We were so hungry for this game. Our fans were hungry for it, our families were hungry for it. We were so excited to get this rivalry matchup. It’s a shame it didn’t go our way. But the fact that we just got to have this experience, for the girls to be able to say they did this, it means the world. We tried to finish strong and we did. We really had a great season.”