Al-Samad Henderson,left, and Noel Shaji leap at the net against Montclair. Photo by Jerry Simon.
Photo by Jerry Simon.
BLOOMFIELD Head coach Louis Stevens has to be happy with the start to the season for his Bloomfield High School boys’ varsity volleyball.
After 10 matches, the Bengals are off to a perfect 10-0 start, including 7-0 in Super Essex Conference-American Division play.
“Our big division wins have been against Montclair (25-11, 25-9 and 25-10, 25-7), Belleville (25-13, 25-16) and Livingston (25-23, 25-21),” said Stevens, whose team has yet to play North 13th Street.
Highlighting the season thus far, Stevens talked about the win against Livingston.
“Our most exciting win of the season was against Livingston, which was played at home. The first game was a hard-fought win and it could have gone either way. The second game, the team started out very flat and we trailed most of the game. At one point, we were down 9-17 and made an amazing comeback to tie the score at 17 and took at two-point lead to go up 19-17. From that point on, it was pretty much back and forth with us winning 25-21 in an exciting one.”
While certainly excited about the start, Stevens also knows the team still has some quality opponents on the schedule.
“The team has, for the most part, lived up to and exceeded my expectations, but unfortunately we haven’t played the toughest of competition yet, so sometimes the team plays a little bit down. We have some very tough matches coming up in the near future, so it will be good to see the team have to play at full intensity,” he said.
Looking back, Stevens talked about two recent tournaments that his squad competed in.
“On April 16, the team traveled to Liberty High School in Bethlehem, Pa., and competed against some very good teams. We missed out on the playoffs with a 3-6 record, but four of the losses were by two, two, three and five points with the five-point loss against a team that we destroyed in the first two sets. Had we won those four games, we would have been 7-2. So overall, I was happy with the results. We made the Gold playoffs in the Livingston tournament on April 23, winning our pool with a 6-2 record. We split with Donovan Catholic (26-27, 25-21), beat Science Park (25-22, 25-21), beat Piscataway (25-22, 25-18) and split with CBA (26-27, 25-22). We went on to beat North Brunswick in the quarterfinals 25-18 and then had the lead for most of the semifinal against Livingston but lost 23-25. St. Joe’s beat Livingston in the final 25-22 after leading big for most of the match.”
The Bloomfield coach said his team has been led by a handful of players.
“Khalil Naouai has been the best player on the court pretty much against every opponent, even in the Pa. tournament. He is a senior left-side hitter and he leads the team in every offensive category. He is also a very good defensive player and one of the team’s best servers,” said Stevens. “Noel Shaji is also a senior left-side hitter. He and Khalil are co-captains. Noel is the second-leading kill producer and third on the team in aces.”
The coach also praised other players.
“Al-Samad Henderson is a junior middle blocker and is improving exponentially every day. He leads the team in hitting percentage at .556 and is third in kills. He leads the team in total blocks. Jose Bruno-Maldonado is a junior setter who is the man responsible for setting everyone up. He leads the team in assists, digs and service aces.”
Looking ahead, the coach talked about what’s coming up for his Bengals.
“We play our Essex County quarterfinal final game on April 27 against the winner of Science Park and East Side,” he said. “Hopefully we can play better and beat them to make it to the semifinals, which should be against North 13th St. If all goes according to plan, we will hopefully be playing Livingston on May 6 at Bloomfield High School for the County Championship. Other goals are to qualify for states and get a good seeding and advance as deep into the tournament as possible.”
About the Author
