Lower Cape May pushes 22-win No. 2 seed to brink before falling in five-set playoff thriller

Posted: January 1st 1970

Lower Cape May's volleyball team took No. 2 seed LEAP Academy to five sets before losing in the second round of the state playoffs.

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

CapeAtlanticLive.com

Two days after a dramatic match in the second round of the South Jersey Group I Tournament, Lower Cape May Regional High School girls volleyball coach Greta Pacevich said, “It’s still hard to talk about.”

Pacevich’s team nearly came up with one of the great upsets of the early rounds of the state tournament, the seventh-seeded Lady Tigers falling to No. 2 LEAP Academy after taking the match as far as it could possibly go. LEAP won the best-of-five matchup 3-2, behind game scores of 24-26, 25-18, 16-25, 25-22, 16-14.

“I’m so super proud of the girls,” Pacevich said. “It was definitely a tough loss because we knew we had chances to win that match but at the end of the day I was just so proud of them.”

The contest represented the first time this season the Lady Tigers have ever played a five-set match. Regular-season competition is a best-of-three format and Lower did not qualify for the Cape-Atlantic League Tournament, which also used a best-of-five format this season. Lower was not truly tested in its opening-round match, winning 3-0 over No. 10 Keyport.

“We hadn’t had the opportunity to do a best of five all year, so this was our first time,” Pacevich said. “I was very curious to see how we were going to do. But we’ve worked a lot on stamina and making sure we’re the most fit team out there. When we went all the way to five sets, I was proud of that aspect, that it didn’t come down to stamina or that we couldn’t last physically.”

The match against LEAP, which improved to an incredible 22-3 with the win, took approximately 3 hours, 45 minutes to complete.

Senior Ella Biersbach, junior Adeline Pacevich (the daughter of the head coach) and sophomore Ava Riggins led the way for Lower against LEAP. Biersbach produced 11 kills and a match-best 16 serving points, Pacevich led all players with 38 assists and Riggins produced a match-best 27 kills.

“They all played hard from point one to the very last points of the game,” coach Pacevich said. “From our sophomores all the way up to our seniors, it was amazing how well they played as a team. I never saw nerves. They all wanted the ball.

“Not that you like to see them crying, but the fact that every single kid, even the ones on the bench, were in tears afterward, I could just tell how every last one of them gave their heart and soul to everything. They just put so much heart into it. They were so upset they weren’t going to be able to play together again. They fought for each other and they fought for the coaches. It’s the easiest group of girls I’ve ever had to coach.”

Lower finished the season at a solid 10-9. The Lady Tigers did so with a rather young lineup that featured just two senior starters.

In addition to Biersbach, Riggins and Adeline Pacevich, other key contributors to this year’s team team include senior Addison Lagares, junior Harley Siner, sophomore Melinda Reeves, junior Chely Candelaria, senior Bailey Leninger, senior Marely Dominguez-Ridriguez and junior Sahara Moore.

“It’s always tough to lose a top player like Ella, but we have some real talent coming up from the JV and with everyone else we have back I think we’re going to continue to be competitive,” coach Pacevich said. “Other teams in our league had way more seniors than us. I’m very excited that much of the core of our team are all coming back.”