Dan Chavez vs. Pennsauken
BLOOMFIELD, NJ (updated Tuesday May 16, 4:15 p.m.) – The Bloomfield High School boys’ varsity volleyball team hoped to defend its Essex County Tournament championship.
The top-seeded Bengals were scheduled to host No. 8 seed Millburn in the quarterfinals May 16. The winner will face the winner between No. 4 seed Belleville and No. 5 seed West Caldwell Tech in the ECT semifinals doubleheader May 18 at West Essex in North Caldwell. The final is Saturday, May 20, at Livingston HS at 1 p.m.
The Bengals rallied to beat Belleville, 18-25, 25-21, 25-21, May 9, at BHS. Junior Dan Chavez had 12 kills; Kyle Barrow had 11 kills; senior Jose Bruno-Maldonado had 37 assists; senior Romello Faircloth had four kills and two blocks; senior Menkare Fleming Gawthney had five kills and four blocks; senior Al-Samad Henderson recorded seven kills and senior libero Zac Pekar notched five digs.
The Bengals won two of three matches during a quad meet at St. Joseph of Metuchen on May 10, beating the host school, 25-18, 25-18 and East Brunswick, 23-25, 25-22, 25-13, and losing to Hillsborough, 25-8, 25-13. In the win over St. Joseph of Metuchen, the Bengals were led by Bruno-Maldonado’s 24 assists; Chavez’s eight kills; Barrow’s five kills and Faircloth’s seven kills. Bruno-Maldonado had 27 assists; Barrow had seven kills and eight digs; Chavez and Faircloth each had seven kills and Pekar had nine digs against East Brunswick.
The next day, the Bengals defeated Science Park, 25-7, 25-15, in Newark. Bruno-Maldonado had 25 assists; Chavez had 11 kills; and Faircloth had nine kills and four blocks. Pekar also had four digs.
The Bengals lost to Pennsauken, 25-18, 21-25, 25-17, at home May 15 to move to an 18-3 record. Bruno had 30 assists; Barrow had seven kills and five digs; Chavez had seven kills and six digs; and Gawthney and Henderson each had seven kills and two blocks.
The seeding pairings for the NJSIAA state tournament were scheduled to be unveiled May 16.
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